Bring the whole family to Ride Royal Blue

Campground has only private access to 430 miles of trails

It doesn’t take long to see that Ride Royal Blue ATV Guest Resort and Campground is a family affair. Operated by Sheila Westray, her daughter Jessica, and son Nathan, not only is the business operation reliant upon family, but with a fun-filled family atmosphere, it’s who they cater to as well.

"I saw a little 3-year-old boy this weekend hoopin’ and hollerin’ ‘I caught one, I caught one,’ and I thought to myself; that’s why I’m here,” Sheila Westray said as she remembered seeing the boy at the campground's stocked fish pond. “That’s why I’m doing this.” “Our focus is on families who want to introduce their children to the mountains,” she said. Ride Royal Blue, located at 6307 Stinking Creek Road in Pioneer, Tennessee has been granted the only private access to a wildlife management area in the state by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials. Ride Royal Blue’s 80 acre property adjoins the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area (WMA), so visitors can unload the trailer, camp and ride.

Royal Blue WMA consists of 53,000 acres of naturally-wooded mountains in Campbell County, Tennessee, complete with about 430 miles of ATV riding trails. It also connects to 130,000 acres that has been designated as the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area where elk have been reintroduced from Canada to in hopes of restoring the elk population.

While there are public accesses to the Royal Blue WMA, campers would argue that Ride Royal Blue is the only way to access this WMA.

“This place is great,” Royal Blue Ranger Club Vice President John Miller said. “You can camp here. Eat here. It’s secure. If you park at the 141 (Exit 141 on I-75), it’s park at your own risk. Here, you can leave whatever you want on your trailer and come back from a ride and no one has bothered it.”

The Royal Blue Rangers also assist in maintaining TWRA trails, as well as give free tour guides from Ride Royal Blue‘s trailhead entrance. Together, Westray and the rangers have put in drainage rocks along trails, helped cut trees and put in drainage tiles as directed by TWRA officials. The rangers also help in search-and-rescue operations when someone gets lost exploring the WMA.

“They’re a really good group of people and are very conscious about safety,” she said. Westray said the rangers are instrumental in helping less-experienced ATV riders enjoy the trails.

Ride Royal Blue is a member of the Tread Lightly Association and conservation of the Royal Blue area is their goal.

“We stress to people that it is a privilege to ride these mountains and see the wildlife,” Westray said. “We don’t want to abuse that privilege.”

Campers are urged to “pack out whatever they pack in,” as a rule. “Where else can they go to ride and see Elk grazing,” Westray asked.

For Westray, it all started when she was a little girl.

“A lot of my Summers as a kid were spent here in the mountains,” she said. Now in retirement, “This is where I want to be.”

It took Westray two years to find the property she wanted that adjoined the Royal Blue WMA. When she began, the area where the campground, lodge and cabins is, was just an old pasture. When asked how their campground was granted the only private access to a WMA in the state, Sheila said, “In the beginning, they didn’t want to open a wildlife management area up to a private entity. Over time, that relationship has softened.”

Sheila started working with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agent Rusty Dunn, who is part of a team of agents that maintain the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area about three years ago. “I think what helped is that we were here to maintain the land… working hand-in-hand with TWRA,” Westray said. “It literally took three years to get the private access granted. They’ve seen that we’re not here to abuse the land and we received our paperwork in June.”

The paperwork she was speaking about was a letter granting access to the TWRA trails from her adjoining property. At that time, she was instructed to sign the document, return it to TWRA for their signatures, at which time it was returned to her. The Campbell County Outdoor Recreation Association, (CORA), was also helpful in getting the approval, according to Westray.

Ride Royal Blue also sells the necessary TWRA access permits. One day permits are $12 for in-state visitors and $30 for visitors not from Tennessee. Vacationers can save some money by purchasing a permit good for a year for $45 in-state, and $108 out-of-state. There are no age restrictions for riders or passengers as long as everyone wears a helmet.

“Trails are being shut down all across the country,” Westray said. “It’s great to see (that Tennessee) is taking to notice of ATV riding and grant us this special access.”

“For people that do this, they’re used to setting up tents and laying on the ground,” said Ride Royal Blue employee Trina Baird. “We get a lot of responses from women who like that we have cabins, a hot shower and a hot meal to come back to from the trails.”

ATV riders can enjoy Ride Royal Blue’s campground of 25 cabins and 31 RV sites. The recreation facility has an arcade, pool table and hockey table while you’re not on the trail. Children can catch their first fish from the on-site stocked fish pond.

“We’re gonna ride about 45 miles today,” Miller, acting as tour guide told his group. “It should be a nice ride and we’ll be back around 5.”

The staff has dinner ready at five p.m. each day. After a long day on the trails, there’s nothing like returning to a hot meal that no one in your family had to cook.

Sitting in a rocking chair, sipping a cup of iced fruit punch and looking out at the mountains as a gentle breeze has just enough bluster to move the hair on your arm. This may be as close to heaven as you can get from Stinking Creek, Tennessee.

That’s what you would think until you ride an All-Terrain Vehicle across the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area, overlooking mountainous regions that haven’t changed in thousands of years and seeing Elk that have been brought back to their native stomping grounds of the Norris Highlands. A place dubbed “The Top of the World” can’t really be described in words and the breath-taking waterfalls make this a wonderfully peaceful place to get back in touch with nature. The Restaurant and Lodge serves breakfast and dinner. The staff takes care of everything so that all that is left is to have fun.

Immediate expansion plan includes the addition of 6 new cabins and a swimming pool. Currently the campground facility can serve about 300 people at a time, and many weekends the campground is full.

“We’ve put all of our efforts into construction and the popularity of this place has grown through word of mouth,” Westray said. “And we’ve got plenty of room to add on to.”

“We get a lot of good, positive feedback every weekend,” Westray said. “Many times we’ve heard the same story: I met a stranger on a trail and they said, ‘You’ve got to try Royal Blue.’” The PRC Ranger Club is a club of over 7,000 Polaris-riding members worldwide. They’ve gained members as they have met new strangers on trails. Roughly 300 Polaris riders came together at Ride Royal Blue in June 2008 for their third rally.

“This is our first time here,” said PRC administrator Gary Lenon of Michigan said. “I like this place… I would highly recommend it to other ATV clubs…My compliments on the food at the lodge.”

The club opened their rally with a prayer and the observance of a singing of the Star-Spangled Banner.

“We’re a family-friendly organization,” Lenon said.

Fred Nichols, a PRC member from Indianapolis, IN said, “This is the best location for us. The Royal Blue area is fantastic.”

“My first stay at the ranch was in July (2007) when I surprised my husband with a weekend stay at the rustic cabin,” Dana Bailey Lawson of Knoxville, Tennessee said. “We came up after work on Friday unloaded the bikes right at our front door, rode some that night, grilled a steak under the stars. Saturday morning we had a great breakfast at the lodge and hooked up with our friends and had a terrific adventure riding way into the mountains all day. That night back at the cabin we sat around the picnic table, played cards and had a great birthday party.”

“Our other stays have been in the deluxe cabin and even more fun since we brought the whole family. All the kids had a blast riding all around the ranch and splashing in the mud on the trails,” she said.

“Our customers love it here and they come back,” Jessica Westray said. “When they come back, they usually bring someone with them that they’ve told about Royal Blue.”

Another Ride Royal Blue patron, Steve Farrell from Dahlonega, Georgia wrote in the guest book: “I just wanted to let you know, the week my group spent at Ride Royal Blue was the best vacation ever. The cabins were great, the food was wonderful, and the trail riding was the best ever. More than all that, I appreciate the people that work at Ride Royal Blue who were so nice and friendly to all of my group. Everyone is still talking about how amazing the fireworks were! I just want to offer our sincere thanks and let you know how much all of us are looking forward to returning to Ride Royal Blue.”

Mountain elevations vary from 820 feet to 3,350 feet above sea level. The terrain includes gracefully rolling hills with a gorgeous green valley bordered by a clear creek called Stinking Creek (which, fortunately, doesn’t live up to its name).

Ride Royal Blue staff sport T-shirts that say “Stinking Creek Rocks.” The shirts immediately gained attention in public, as most everyone wanted one.

Laughing, Sheila said, “The kids and I came together with something to get people to the area and we came up with: Stinking Creek Rocks. People love (the shirts).”

More information about Ride Royal Blue can be found at www.RideRoyalBlue.com or by calling (423) 784-9445.