Knoxville has long been the Gateway to the Smokies, but now it has its own wildlands right within city limits. The 1,000-acre Knoxville Urban Wilderness Corridor along Knoxville’s downtown waterfront contains ten parks and more than forty miles of recreational trails, along with three civil war forts, historic settlement sites, and diverse ecological features. The trails are a mix of rugged singletrack, crushed gravel, and mown grass pathways. The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, Knoxville Track Club, and Knox Greenways Coalition provided thousands of hours of volunteer labor and helped acquire much of the land. Most of the trails are nestled along the Tennessee River, which flows through the heart of Knoxville.
