Brandon, Amanda, Emily, Hannah, Clint, and I did the Peters Mill Run, Taskers Gap, and Coal Road 4x4 trails all in one weekend. The hardest, as far as rocky trails, off-camber turns, and switchbacks, was Coal Road which is still fairly easy in a 4WD vehicle. There were very few other vehicles on the trails which made it nice for us.
Coal Road's Jeep Trail is free, but Peters Mill Run and Taskers Gap require a paid permit. All of them were wide enough for our 4x4 Suburban.
At the time we went, Peters Mill Run had one huge pothole that was a "frame twister." There was no way to go around it, so we had a spotter help get us through it. We still ended up on three tires, but there was no damage to our Suburban.
Taskers Gap became a little confusing at the end. The markers for some trails had two layers of paint in two different colors which made it hard to tell what was the 4x4 road and what was ATV only. it looked as if someone had gone back to correct a mistake in marking the trees. Regarding that...
Did you know a Suburban can get 1/2 a mile down a narrow ATV trail? Did you know you can back said Suburban around tight turns and many trees on a narrow trail? And, in case you are wondering, a Suburban can also do a 5 point turn on that narrow ATV trail if you let your back bumper eat a little mountain and allow your front bumper to gently tap a tree. That was a wrong turn that led to much laughter!
We have traveled Coal Road numerous times and enjoy the slippery boulders, off-camber turns, boulders to navigate around, and the many switchbacks. Peters Mill Run and Taskers Gap offer some minor challenges to novice drivers and have beautiful scenery.
I wish I could spend some time in a hammock in the fern carpeted forest. Somewhere along the way, there was a boulder bigger than our suburban that looked like a king's throne. We found a hole in the boulders on one side of the road that seemed to have no bottom. No one would dare put their arm down it to hold their phone's camera to see what we could see.
We had a lot of fun doing all three in one weekend. They are all relatively easy for mindful drivers with 4WD. We had lunch, plenty of drinks, and tp packed. I always have a well-stocked first aid kit packed. We also took leashes and bowls for our dogs.
*I had a ton of pictures of these trails, but I lost them in when trying to transfer them from my phone to my computer. Even our very computer literate son was unable to retrieve them.
