Look at the fall calendar for Stony Lonesome OHV Park and a pattern jumps out fast. September 19: Night Ride. October 10: Night Ride. October 24: 24 Hour Night Ride. November 7: Veterans Day Weekend Night Ride. November 27: Black Friday Night Ride. December 12: Toys for Tots Night Ride. Almost every marquee date on the schedule happens after the sun goes down, and that is not a marketing gimmick layered on top of a daytime trail park. It is the park.
If you live around Smith Lake and haven't spent a Saturday night bouncing a UTV over rock ledges by headlight, here is what's actually going on at the off-road park thirty-some minutes from the lake, and why the state of Alabama just spent real money making sure the lights stay on.
A Hunting Club Turned the State's First Public OHV Park
Stony Lonesome sits on Alabama Highway 69 South near Bremen, on land that was a private hunting club until Cullman County opened it as a public park in March 2009. It became Alabama's first public off-highway-vehicle park, and the county still owns and runs it as one of its parks and recreation properties. The footprint has grown to more than 1,456 acres, with over 150 miles of trail cut through rolling hills, steep climbs, wetlands and creek crossings, according to the National Recreation Trails database. Terrain ranges from easy fire-road cruising to rock sections steep enough that only a handful of vehicles can climb them.
One detail catches people off guard the first time they plan a visit. The park keeps unusual hours: open Friday and Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and closed Tuesday through Thursday. If your idea of a spontaneous midweek ride is a Wednesday afternoon, Stony Lonesome will be locked up when you get there.
The Calendar Runs on Darkness
Here is what the park's own event calendar looks like from now through the end of the year.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 19, 2026 | Night Ride |
| October 10, 2026 | Night Ride |
| October 24, 2026 | 24 Hour Night Ride |
| November 7, 2026 | Veterans Day Weekend Night Ride |
| November 24-26, 2026 | Closed for Thanksgiving |
| November 27, 2026 | Black Friday Night Ride |
| December 12, 2026 | Toys for Tots Night Ride |
| December 24-25, 2026 | Closed for Christmas |
A local events guide for the Smith Lake area lists that same September date as a "Jeep Invasion / Night Ride," a themed variation on the same format the park runs almost every month of the year. The 24-hour version in October requires working headlights and taillights just to enter the trail, turning an overnight ride into something closer to an endurance event than a casual outing.
This is worth sitting with for a second. A park could easily run its calendar around daytime weekends and call it done. Stony Lonesome built its identity around the opposite choice, and that choice has consequences for how the county spends money.
The State Just Paid to Keep the Lights On
In August 2025, Governor Kay Ivey's office announced a $711,539 Recreational Trails Program grant for improvements at Stony Lonesome, funded through the Federal Highway Administration and administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. According to the Cullman Tribune's coverage of the grant, the money covers eight prefabricated cabins, a small rescue vehicle, a drone to assist with rescues, and two new storage buildings, one for visitors' ATVs and campers and another for the park's own trail equipment.
That grant followed an earlier one from ADECA and the North Central Alabama Regional Council of Governments, worth $524,937 toward an $840,299 project. Read the fine print on what that money was actually for and the thesis of this whole park comes into focus: replacing two bridges for vehicle access across the creek, rehabilitating worn trail sections, and installing reflective signage and solar lighting along the trail specifically to allow night usage while improving safety.
That is the state paying, in writing, to make riding in the dark safer rather than simply tolerating it as an after-hours quirk. The county isn't retrofitting a daytime park for occasional night events. It is building night riding into the trail system as permanent infrastructure, the same way you'd budget for parking or restrooms.
The investment hasn't stopped. In July 2026, the Cullman County Commission authorized its chairman to sign amendments to the Recreational Trails Program grants for further Stony Lonesome improvements and awarded the park's HVAC system bid to Dye HVAC, according to meeting coverage from the Cullman Tribune. A rescue drone and a small rescue vehicle are not line items a county adds for a park that only sees traffic in daylight. They are the cost of running trails that stay open after dark, on terrain steep enough to challenge even experienced riders.
Built for the Whole Trail, Not Just the Ride
Stony Lonesome's identity as a night-riding destination sometimes overshadows how much of the property serves people who never touch a throttle. The same 150-plus miles of trail are shared by mountain bikers, hikers and equestrians, and the park's cabins and RV sites turn a single evening ride into an easy weekend trip for anyone camping nearby.
The park also hosts community fundraising events that have nothing to do with mud or rock crawling. Its spring Ride for a Cure weekend grew out of a conversation between Park Manager Tyler Lindsey and Jeremy Reeves, who runs the Elyse Reeves Foundation, a charity supporting families dealing with childhood cancer. Reeves, Lindsey has said, "went through similar circumstances himself." The event now includes a poker run, guided night rides, a Barbie jeep race, barrel racing and an obstacle course the park built specifically because of that partnership. It is a reminder that the park's calendar, night-heavy as it is, still makes room for events built around community rather than competition.
What This Actually Means for a Fall Weekend
None of this requires owning a rock crawler. If you already have a UTV, a Jeep or a dirt bike sitting in the garage, the practical takeaway is simple: between now and the new year, Stony Lonesome has six separate night rides on the books, starting with the September 19 ride and running through the Toys for Tots ride in mid-December. If you don't own anything with four wheels and knobby tires, the trail system's daytime hours still work for a hike or a mountain bike ride, provided you show up on a day the park is actually open.
Living near Smith Lake means your neighbors' Saturday nights don't all look the same. Some are on the water. Some are at Stony Lonesome, headlights cutting through the dark on a trail the state just paid to light properly. Knowing which weekend is which, and why the county keeps investing in the after-dark version of this park rather than treating it as a novelty, is the kind of detail that only comes from actually being here.
That's the whole idea behind what we do at iHeart Smith Lake. We live on this lake, in this county, around these trails and these towns, and we'd rather tell you what a Tuesday closure or a solar-lighting grant actually means than hand you a generic list of things to do nearby. If you're already part of this community, we hope this saved you a trip to a locked gate. If you're thinking about becoming part of it, come talk to us. Explore Smith Lake Homes and let's find the place that puts you close to whichever Saturday night is calling your name.
