Mountain bike, hiking trails coming to Foothills Parkway in Cocke County

COCKE COUNTY - The Appalachian Regional Commission announced a $500,000 grant is headed to Cocke County to design mountain bike and hiking trails along the Foothills Parkway. Cocke County is one of Tennessee’s most economically distressed counties, and these mountain bike and hiking trails will bring more of the 12 million visitors who come to the Smokies each year to Cocke County, which will increase tourism and economic development opportunities in the county.

"For the past several years, I have been working with Governor Lee, Senator Blackburn, the Conservation Fund, Cocke and Sevier county officials, state representatives and officials from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest to develop mountain bike and hiking trails along the undeveloped section of the Foothills Parkway in Cocke County," said Senator Lamar Alexander. "We heard some really good ideas in our roundtables, and thanks to this funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, those ideas are going to become a reality."

Published May 22, 2020