What public offroad trails are there near Asheville?

I live in Charlotte, and I've been off road in the Uwharries and north of Morganton around the Wilson Creek area, plus at a Boy Scout camp (great trails, no public access), but never toward or around Asheville. I'm somewhat familiar with Tellico, but I'm not interested in going that far west. I'll be in Asheville overnight Friday, and if I can identify a viable trail or two around Asheville I'll take the Rover and my son and I can have some fun Saturday and still get back to Charlotte Saturday evening!

 

 

Thats a good idea but Carolina adventure world is ATV/UTV only, they will not allot full size vehicles unfortunately

 

Hurrican Creek to Max Patch is a nice easy ride, and there is also Pilgrims trail(if I am remembering that right).

 

My mistake, I though Carolina did allow full size.

 

We ended up driving Hurricane Creek yesterday, and then up to Max Patch. (Max Patch is the name of a mountain very, very close to the NC-TN border. It's a bald, which means there are no trees at the summit and the 360 degree views are great.)

The Hurricane Creek trail was mostly easy, but there were a few spots that for a stock DII with street tires were a little gnarly, especially one spot near the end. My son shot video that I hope he will get edited and I can upload or share a link for soon.

We ran into a guy in a Wrangler and a guy in a Land Cruiser from Hendersonville who had their little kids with them and we enjoyed their company. After Max Patch we headed to Hot Springs for burgers and then back to Asheville. It was a nice outing. Thanks to Sandman614 for suggesting Hurricane Creek. I'd heard of it years ago but had forgotten about it.

 

Hot springs has a nice campground right on the river, I heard good things about some diner there too. I stayed there with a Hammock group and then drove over to the Biltmore Estate for the Overland Expo with my Tacoma buddies. Glad you enjoyed it, a little challenge is never a bad thing.

 

Hot Springs is a fun little town. We camped at that campground on the river years and years ago. Hot Springs is a stopover for Appalachian Trail thru hikers, complete with an outfitter and an National Forest Service office.

 

I lived in the area for a while during college and hot springs has some ok trails in the pisgah forest and also check out the gorges state park as well. Was there last weekend and some good trails, nothing to crazy where you are risking breaking things but still fun and rocky and lots of hills. My stock 04 made easy work of them and I had a blast camping on the river.

 

What does this post have to do with Portland Oregon??