QUNICY, W.Va. — There’s a new project in the works that will transform Eastern Kanawha County into 2,000 acres and more of ATV, dirt bikes, and full-size vehicle trails.
Appalachian Outlaw Trails currently already has 25 miles of trails for ATVs, SXS, dirt bikes, and full-size vehicles such as Jeeps and trucks in the Upper Kanawha Valley area, but they now have a long-term goal of doubling those number of trails, hosting major off-roading events, and creating a complete off-roading resort for West Virginians and tourists across the east coast alike.
The Kanawha County Commission is working with AOT to expand its operations in the eastern part of the county around the Quincy area starting with phase one.
Eric Larch and Chris Ingram with AOT joined Kanawha County Commissioner Lance Wheeler on 580 Live Thursday to talk about the project and the long-term goals they have for it.
Larch said they have huge plans for the project overall. 
“Our goal here into phase one is to naturally get started as a trail head and start building the needed trails from that start location,” Larch said. “We also plan to host some large events for the area that are exciting for economic growth.”
He said the first event they plan to host is looking to bring in around 15,000 people and is slated for 2026.
Larch said they will bring in major off-road companies to work with in putting the event on, such as Ultra4 Racing– a large UTV and truck series who are big out west but want to establish roots on the east coast– and GNCC Racing, the world’s premiere cross country racing series.
Eventually, further down the road, AOT plans to establish over 100,000 acres in Eastern Kanawha County for the trails, potentially making it one of the largest parks in the nation.
Wheeler said this project is one that has been two years in the making and fits into their ongoing plan of looking at economic development projects for the Upper Kanawha Valley and what they can do to revitalize the area.
He said economic development through outdoor recreation and tourism projects have been a main initiative for them for quite a while now, and those that already have opened, such as the Shawnee Sports Complex in Dunbar and the Hatfield and McCoy Single Trax Dirt Bike Trail in Tornado that opened last year, have had immense success.
Wheeler said an ATV trail has been an overriding suggestion people have presented to the commission multiple times over.
“We talked to Hatfield and McCoy and we’ve been working with that, but they continue to say, we want an ATV trail, not only for our people to be able to enjoy riding, but to have tourism and economic development to bring businesses that we’ve seen in southern West Virginia due to the Hatfield and McCoy Trails,” Wheeler said.
Along with expansion of trails in the 2,000 acres, phase one of the project is expected to see the creation of a welcome center, a base camp outfitters store, a guard shack, and and an RV campground and primitive camping sites.
The specific location of Appalachian Outlaw Trails where the project will get established is on a mountain along Route 60 in what is considered the Diamond area outside of Belle, across from Riverside High School.
Larch said the long-term plan is to eventually make AOT an outdoor recreation destination and resort complete with cabins and even an entire concert venue.
He said they want it to truly be a place that provides expansive outdoor rec opportunities.
“Whether that is mountain biking or single-track dirt biking, hiking, horseback riding, clay shooting venues, just anything that would bring someone in who would like to enjoy something that is not just off-road access and that is truly an outdoor rec destination,” he said.
Ingram said he grew up riding ATVs and dirt bikes in the upper Kanawha Valley area, so he wants to help bring in nothing but the best for it in that way.
“It has always been near and dear to my heart, it’s full of great people and I wanted to do something big for our area that would bring in jobs and economic growth to the upper Kanawha Valley, so I think this will be a great project and I think we will definitely achieve that,” Ingram said.
Larch said this project is preserving that trail access that the area already has to offer and expanding on it. He said the area offers the best trail systems he has ever experienced.
“You know, we’ve ridden all over the east coast, we’ve ridden in Tennessee and Kentucky and all of these different large off-road park areas, public riding, state agency areas, and one thing we’ll find is that we always enjoy coming back home and enjoying our area here,” Larch said. “We’ve brought a lot of people over the years from out of state who continue to come back, and it’s truly something a lot of people don’t understand until they step out of Kanawha County.”
Wheeler said the beautiful mountains of eastern Kanawha County are their biggest selling point and this project is an anchor for establishing a way to utilize those mountains in the best way possible while improving their goal of economic development.
He said there’s a long way to go on the project, but the end result should be well worth the effort.
“I think we’re going to have something extremely incredible, not just for tourism but the community, a place families can bring their kids from Belle, from Quincy, from Diamond, from Cedar Grove, and from out of state,” Wheeler said.
The project will take place across four phases. Larch said they expect to officially open AOT in the spring of 2026.