PHOTO GALLERY

To say this place has rocks is an understatement!

Home of the Eastern Rock Crawling Championships, Jellico is the new frontier for those tired or bored with Tellico. Located north of Knoxville a stones throw away from the Kentucky state line, this small coal mining town has discovered who it's tourists are - 4WD enthusiasts.

The recent SFWDA Quarterly meeting brought over 100 die-hard wheelers and their rigs for a little taste of what champion class rock crawling is all about. Under perfect skies and cool temps the drivers split up into moderate to hard to rock crawling groups. But that didn't matter as everyone wound up on the rocks. In fact, the first two vehicles in the moderate group had breakage on the their first obstacle, that included the trail boss.

The trails are located on private property owned by the Clear Fork Mining Co. I'm not sure of the exact size but once it's completely developed it will rival Windrock in scope and size. The group responsible to working with the property owner to make this possible is The Trail Keepers Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving multi-use trails on public and private lands. Through their hard work this "new frontier" will soon be the premier offroad trail in the Eastern United States.

It's a combination of Tellico's "Lower 2", Windrock's "Rattle Rock" with a few really steep slippery hill climbs throw in for just in case your head gets too big. There are literally miles and miles of logging trails leading to other uncharted obstacles. Everyone was so busy playing on the rocks only a few interested folks headed out into the surrounding area. I did hear of someone nearly submerging their vehicle in the deep part of a river crossing.

For now, riding at Jellico will be invitation only. It would be great to see it eventually developed like Windrock where you can pay for a day or buy a yearly permit. As members of Southern Jeeps and SFWDA we will have opportunities to visit and experience this area in the months and years to come.

So, grab a spare axle and a couple of U-joints and let's go break something!