Excitement building with Palmetto Trail

Construction is underway at Stumphouse Tunnel Park on a state-of-the-art mountain biking trail system anchored by the Palmetto Trail. The Oconee County Chamber of Commerce is working with city, county and state leaders to stimulate tourism and economic development about the project. Vanessa Penton, Executive Director of the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce, is excited about the trail and what it will do for the county. “The Palmetto Conservation Foundation came and updated the chamber a couple of weeks ago at a Business After Hours. This is happening up at Stumphouse Mountain, this is going to be big for not only Walhalla but Oconee County as a whole. I don’t think we’ve grasp the business opportunities that are going to come with this trail. Of course, it will introduce a need for some accommodations and we hope that folks will get behind that and see if we can’t make that happen. We will also we’ll see people coming into the county that might not have necessarily with this trail. The trail is going to offer beginner, intermediate and advanced trails to hike and bike along that portion and once it is complete you can start in downtown Walhalla at the Depot Park and you can literally walk across the state of South Carolina if you wish to. It is a 500-mile trek and it might be on some people’s bucket list, so why not start in Walhalla and end up in Awendaw County with the Palmetto Trail. So, we are very excited about that and what it is going to bring to Oconee County.” The Palmetto Trail and mountain bike trail system at Stumphouse Tunnel Park is the first section of a planned 12-mile extension of the Trail from Oconee Station State Historic Site into downtown Walhalla. The Trail stretches from Walhalla across 14 counties to the Intracoastal Waterway.