Where Rocky Top takes on a new meaning
Coal Creek, Tenn. Off Highway Vehicles
Sep 29, 2011
Bijan C. Bayne
What To See
Photo from Bijan C. Bayne
When the University of Tennessee's football faithful sing "Rocky Top", they're not exaggerating. Another sports craze in the state, however, involves shock absorbers rather than shoulder pads. It's rock crawling, and there's no hotter place to do so than Coal Creek OHV (near Oak Ridge):
Conveniently situated near the Oak Ridge National Lab, and Knoxville's airport, Coal Creek is home to rental lodging, OHV courses, and scenic mountian views. Whether mountain bikes, side-by-sides, or rail buggies are your thing, you can join the enthusiastic (albeit muddy) aficions at Windrock Park:
It's good clean fun, the courses are challenging, to say the least, and there are vids on YouTube to pique your curiosity. Better yet, Get Your Mud On TV has filmed competition here in conjunction with FOX Sports:
On a clear day, one can see the Smoky Mountains, some 60 miles away, from atop these ridges.
Oak Ridge was a secret city of 75,000 during WW II- the site where the nuclear fission necessary to The Manhattan Project took place. Additional attractions to Coal Creek OHV include the Museum of Appalachia, where there are cabins once occupied by the families of Daniel Boone and Mark Twain, and one that appeared in the t.v. series "Daniel Boone", the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, the American Museum of Science & Energy, and Green-McAdoo Cultural Center in nearby Clinton, which celebrates the students of a Southern public high school that was desegregated before Little Rock Central H.S.
So the secret is out.
