ATV fun YEAR ‘ROUND in McDowell Co,. #AlmostHeaven West Virginia!

Elkhorn Inn ATV Guests!

ATVing from the Elkhorn Inn!

ATVing home to the Elkhorn Inn…

Believe it or not, one of the main reasons Dan and I chose to save and restore the historic “Coal Heritage Trail” building we would open as the Elkhorn Inn, and move to McDowell Co., WV, is because we love to ATV! And as Dan is 72 and I’m 59, we (and our guests) can attest to the fact that ATVing is NOT just for kids! AND as it’s LEGAL to ride ATVs and UTVs on the roads here, we- and our Elkhorn Inn guests- can ride right from the Elkhorn Inn to the trails- and in addition to the famed Hatfield McCoy Trails, (their “Indian Ridge Trailhead” in Ashland, WV is only 8 miles from the Elkhorn Inn), there are literally HUNDREDS of miles of FREE trails throughout McDowell County! There are wonderful places to ride to where you can have a glorious picnic up on a mountain top, such as Miracle Mountain Wilderness Park, which has a gorgeous lookout, a beautiful 1940s log cabin, and a nearby koi pond! There are waterfalls to enjoy, fun mud puddles to splash through, interesting and historic small towns to ride through, such as Gary, War, Elbert, Filbert, Crumpler, Matoaka, and Beartown, and deer, wild turkeys, goats, and even bears to see! There are wildflowers and butterflies in the spring and summer, and cattails and magnificent “leaf-peeping” in the fall! There are even fun places to stop for a bite to eat along the way! This spring we ATVed to the place we call “Ramp Mountain”, and dug ramps on the mountainside so we could make Pickled Ramps and Ramp Pesto, and we recently went ATVing several times to pick wild blackberries, and got so many that Chef Dan and I not only made Wild Blackberry Cordial and Sorbet, and Wild Blackberry-Ancho BBQ Sauce, but we also put up several gallons of Wild Blackberry Wine! You can Railfan on your ATV, “leaf-peep” the gorgeous fall colors, AND you can even ATV to the Golf Course– Black Wolf Links near Gary, WV! There are SO many great places to ATV here that I can’t begin to list them all, but below are photos of some of our favorites for year ’round fun- this is TRULY “Four Seasons Country”!