The Vision

             Running for over 2,000 miles along the mountain ridges of eastern Kentucky, the sKYward trails of the KY Mountain Trails system will be professionally designed and managed to provide a fun-filled recreation experience for a wide variety of outdoor enthusiasts.  The multi-use trail system will grow to be one of the largest in the nation.  It will readily accommodate the many off-highway motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle riders, four-wheel drive enthusiasts, equestrians, mountain bicyclists, hikers, and other trail users who will travel to the area to enjoy the trails.  

The completed network of trails winding their way through eastern Kentucky will open the area to hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.  It will boost the region's economy with thousands of new jobs and an anticipated infusion of more than $100 million into the region each year. 

            Ultimately, the trails will also extend into the adjoining regions of southern West Virginia where they will connect with the growing Hatfield-McCoy trail system, and into southwestern Virginia where a similar trail system is under development.  The three-state project will ultimately contain more than 5,000 miles of continuous trails in an area of almost eight million acres.  There will be no other trail system like it anywhere in the world. 

            Modeled after the Hatfield-McCoy trails in southern West Virginia, the sKYward trails of the KY Mountain Trails system will make use of large tracts of land owned by corporations in the region.  The land will be opened to public recreation during times when the landowners are not actively working on the land.  The trails will close or move, as necessary, to avoid conflicting with landowner or lessee activities on the land. 

            The recreation area will be managed, as it is in West Virginia, by a public entity to be created or identified by the Kentucky state government working in cooperation with county fiscal courts in the project area.  Fees assessed on trail users will cover the cost of its operation, just as hunting and fishing license fees are used to manage those recreational activities. 

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Coalition Partners
     

The effort to establish the sKYward trails is being spearheaded by a nonprofit corporation created just for that purpose, the Kentucky Mountain Trails Development Coalition.  Counties and Area Development Districts in the project area make up the core membership of the corporation.  It is working closely with the state Commerce Cabinet and the Department of Tourism to implement a trail system that will be a source of pride for the citizens of eastern Kentucky and that will draw recreational trail users from around the world to enjoy Kentucky’s beautiful mountain terrain.  Trails will be developed on private property.   There are no plans to develop or use any trails in the adjacent National Forests.

As of November 2006, members of the Coalition represent the following Eastern Kentucky counties and area development districts:
          

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Trail Concept Map
                

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