Knoxville Ride Review
Knoxville Recreation Area. That's what the sign says when arriving from the north out of lower lake, which is south of clearlake on hwy. 53. When you arrive from this direction it is about 1/2 an hour from the intersection of 53 and Morgan Valley Road until you reach the 1st entrance to knoxville, which will be on your right. The road on the way down is not too bad, not too tight of turns and only one spot where the road collapsed at one time and they have a lane blocked off but it doesn't look like they are going to be repairing this anytime soon. The road itself is good so don't worry about a bad ride on the way, it's asphalt all the way.
Upon arrival at knoxville the parking is limited to a small dirt area in front of the entrance, but when I was there I was the first one to get there so it wasn't any trouble. When I went to leave, there were quite a few vehicles there, so remember parking is limited at the north end. I have never been to the south entrance so I don't know how it is.
O.k., now the riding. You start out on a dirt road that any car could make it up, so remember always stay right, do not ride side by side. I say this because my kid was almost taken out by a truck on a road there, and we were in single file. The truck was cutting the corner and moving pretty good. If it wasn't for the quick reaction on my kids part the truck would have hit him. But don't let this deter you, I am still going to ride there. Up the road aways is a shooting area on the left, but it has a good backstop so I wasn't too worried about stray bullets. The trails themselves are a mixture of pretty rocky at the higher areas, to nice dirt when you get down in the valleys. At the top a lot of the trails are short and disconnected. So when you take the time to get up this steep rocky trail, you end up having to turn around and come back down. Sometimes though it is worth it, just for the view. Most of the trails are not marked so you are kinda on your own to know where you are and the map you can download is not 100% accurate. But it is close so you have an idea where you are. Red elephant mine trail is one that is marked and you can access this from 2 different points along the fire road. This trail is nice dirt good turns and a lot of fun. It leads to and old boarded up mine, and some other junk down there but the trail is good and worth a run or two. Another good spot is at hunting creek, there is a picnic area and a trail from the end of the area to a creek that is very picturesque. The entrance is behind the far picnic tables in the picnic area so don't feel bad if someone is right there eating. It's the only way in there. We came down from the top so we didn't know until we exited that it was even there. There are some rough spots on this trail to the creek but they are really fun. If you go to knoxville you must go here. Out of the creek is a trail that leads up. This is the way we came down to the creek and from there to the picnic area, and it was rough. This trail is pretty steep coming down and extremely narrow. If you have a wide quad, like a widened 4x4 or such you may have a tough time. It's also very rocky. If you are afraid of heights or have a small child with you, I would not suggest going up here. It has a drop on one side that only gets farther down the higher you go, and a mountain on the other side. There is no room for error. But it is very pretty going up. While at knoxville we didn't use too much gas, a little over a tank on z400 suzuki's and had a great time. I am not that particular about where I ride, but if it sucked I would say so. If you have never been there you should give it a look, at least it would be somewhere new. If you live closer to a really good area, It will probably let you down, but it will still be fun.
Here is the bad. The place is extremely trashy. I am not going to blame anyone in particular but there was trash everywhere. The shooting areas were unbelievable! I am a hunter and a shooter and I never leave anything behind. No shells, nothing. But at knoxville you wouldn't know where to start it is so bad at the shooting areas. Some abandoned cars and such down at red mine and this also is a rustic camp spot. So all in all, I must say it was thrashed there, in my opinion. If we can get enough people at this site it would only help our sport to spend a day and help to clean this up a little. Even though I think it is people just going up there to party that is causing most of this.
Knoxville review 2 Knoxville Ride Area
Knoxville pics 1 Knoxville pics 2
