Huntsville

The most popular venues for mountain biking in the Huntsville area are Monte Sano State Park and the adjoining Monte Sano Land Trust Preserve, which together comprise about 4,000 acres ranging from 800 to 1,650 feet in elevation and almost 60 miles of trails open to mountain biking.
Monte Sano is less than 5 miles from downtown Huntsville, and other venues close to the city center include Blevins Gap Preserve, Wade Mountain Preserve, Hays Nature Preserve, and Wheeler Wildlife Refuge, which offer a variety of terrain and scenery. Plans are also underway to add more mountain biking trails in the newly acquired Chapman Mountain Preserve.

Huntsville also offers over 20 miles of paved greenways, some of which provide access to natural surface mountain biking trails. The City of Huntsville has plans for adding more miles of paved greenways over the next few years.

A little further out from town, mountain biking at Lake Guntersville State Park and De Soto State Park are also becoming popular. Both of these venues offer water recreation opportunities by virtue of their proximity to Lake Guntersville and Little River Canyon, respectively.

All three state parks in the Huntsville area with trail systems also offer lodging options such as primitive camping, cabins, RV campsites, and hotel rooms. Huntsville, Guntersville, and Fort Payne also have a number of hotels, with Huntsville offering the greatest variety.

Other opportunities for recreation include kayaking and canoeing in the Flint River and the Tennessee River, as well as other tributaries to the Tennessee River. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center, the Burritt Museum, and Big Spring Park are three local attractions that visitors won't want to miss.