If you asked me a few years ago what comes to my mind when I think of West Virginia, you’d probably get a snarky response. Like many Americans, my notions of the Mountain State were largely shaped by books and movies filled with Appalachian hillbilly caricatures.
Then the Army moved us to Virginia for four years. While living there, we did our best to explore our local surroundings. Our travels even included heading across the border to West Virginia for a trips. And you know what I discovered??
West Virginia is a really, REALLY cool place to visit!
If you love the water, there’s whitewater rafting and tubing in the Shenandoah River (one of our family favorites in the hot summer). Or you could head into the Monongahela National Forest to explore some of the 800+ miles of mountain trails.
And, of course, there’s the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters in Harper’s Ferry. WV. This historic town is considered the unofficial half-way point on the Appalachian Trail. Each AT thru-hiker lucky enough to make it that far gets their photo taken and added to the ATC archive. As an aspiring AT thru-hiker myself, I spent plenty of time exploring the ATC’s hiking resources.
So, with this background, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that we definitely wanted to add West Virginia to our list of places to stop in 2018 as we worked our way down the East Coast.
Finally getting to West Virginia
We postponed our fall travel plans through West Virginia several times, mostly due to the weather. With lots of rain coming through the state, we didn’t want waste a single day cooped up in the RV playing board games instead of outside hiking and exploring.
We finally got a break in the weather forecast and departed for Little Beaver State Park at the end of October. This state campground officially closes on November 1st each year, so we were cutting it down to the wire.
On the upside, the delay in our travels meant we arrived during the peak fall foliage. And let me tell you, Little Beaver is probably one of the prettiest state parks we visited this year. The park has an 18-acre lake to fish in and close to 20 miles of trails to explore and appreciate the changing leaves. Talk about an added bonus!
The trees next to our campsite at Little Beaver State Park.
Beyond the spectacular fall colors, one of the best reasons to visit this park late in the season is to avoid the crowds. We would run into them again full force in November when we hit the Smoky Mountains, but for now, the quiet in West Virginia was a true treat. In fact, the campground was so empty, the park ranger just told us to pick whatever campsite we wanted. As you can see from the photo above, we found a real beauty!
New River Gorge National River
The primary reason we chose to stay at Little Beaver State Park was its proximity to the New River Gorge. This national historic site showcases 53 miles of the New River as it cuts through the Appalachian Mountains. The river is heralded as one of the oldest rivers in the world and exposes rocks that are 330 million years old!
We also wanted to visit one of West Virginia’s most iconic symbols – the steel arch bridge that crosses the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia. Prior to the bridge’s construction in the 1970s, visitors had to travel down steep, windy switchbacks on either side of the gorge. That drive that took approximately 40 minutes each way. Now, you can traverse the gorge in less than a minute.
View of the New River Gorge Bridge from the Natl Park Visitor Center
The bridge increased tourism in this area of West Virginia and has become a symbol for the state. It’s even featured on the West Virginia quarter issued by the U.S. Mint (take a look next time you have one in your pocket). A tremendous engineering feat for its time, this span is still the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere!
One of the best times to visit the bridge is late October. That’s because Bridge Day is celebrated on the third Saturday of October with a festival of extreme outdoor events, including rappelling and zip-lining. Bridge Day is also the only day of the year when you can legally BASE jump off the bridge into the 876-foot New River Gorge.
Hiking in the New River Gorge
New River Gorge
We definitely weren’t up for anything quite as extreme as BASE jumping during our visit. Our goal was to find some trails to take in the sweeping views of the gorge instead.
Exploring the New River Gorge is a bit like hiking in the Grand Canyon. It’s just an immense area to take in, and the National Park Service’s trail map gave use 61 different trail experiences to cut our teeth on. Lucky for us, the map also had excellent directions to these trails. This was critical, since many of the trailheads required driving on small rural roads without a lot of road signs.
We focused the majority of our hiking to the Fayetteville area, and hiked the four following trails during our visit.
The Long Point Trail
View from Long Point
The Long Point Trail is an 1.6 mile out-and-back trail that probably gives you the best views of the New River Gorge Bridge. This is an easy trail that moves across a flat field and forest before leading you to a giant rock outcropping. Once you emerge from the forest onto Long Point, you can see the bridge in the distance and the river running below. The one downside to this hike is that Long Point is a pretty popular place to visit, even in the low season. So getting a photo without some other yahoo walking into the shot is nearly impossible. Nonetheless, if you want to see the bridge in all its splendor, this is the best hike to do.
The Endless Wall Trail
Cliff views from Diamond Point
The Endless Wall Trail was my favorite of all the hikes we did at the New River Gorge. This 2.4 mile ‘C-shaped trail’ allows hikers to get access it from two different trailheads. The moderately easy hike then progresses toward Diamond Peak, which is located in the center of the route. There are numerous overlooks along the way that give you views of the cliffs. Diamond Peak is definitely the best one too. It’s located on a bend allowing great views upriver to see the rapids. We were too late in the season to see any whitewater rafters down below. However, we did get several glimpses the trains that slowly run at the base of the cliffs on either side of the river. We also had stunning views of the fall colors juxtaposed against the exposed rocks as we looked out on the gorge.
The Bridge Trail
Rock walls on Bridge Trail
The Bridge Trail trail is definitely the most strenuous of all the trails we ventured on during our visit to trip to the New River Gorge. While it’s only .86 miles each way, the footing is very challenging. Hikers have to go up and down several steep slopes and traverse plenty of large rocks. Adding to the difficulty, we chose to hike it the day after some pretty serious rain. So, the trail was pretty slick in some places. The true benefit of this trail though is that you get to walk under a portion of the bridge. This allows you to see the arch from a completely different angle than the less adventurous visitors to this area. There were also several rock overhangs along the way to stand under. They will make you marvel at how difficult it must have been to construct the bridge on the walls of the gorge.
Fayetteville Trail
Wolf Creek at bottom of Fayetteville Trail
There are seven different places where you can get on the Fayetteville Trail along its 4-mile long route. We only did the last mile-long section where it connects to the Bridge Trail. But that allowed us to combine the two trails for a nice afternoon hike. This section of the Fayetteville Trail runs directly above the old auto road that drivers had to take from the top of the gorge down to the river prior to the completion of the New River Gorge Bridge. It terminates at Wolf Creek, with plenty of rapids and scenic waterfalls to relax at before you head back uphill. Adventurous hikers could also continue two additional miles from there to the Kaymoor Trail toward the Kaymoor Mine Site. (Note: The Kaymoor Trail was closed during our visit due to an unstable slope, so check with a NPS Ranger before you head out.)
Final Notes on West Virginia
With these hikes under our belt, we were in need of some local food and beer to replenish our energy.
Although we tried several restaurants during our time visiting the New River Gorge, our top pick for for some local flavor was definitely Pies & Pints in Fayetteville. Their speciality pizzas are so unique, they’ll leave you craving more. (My favorite was the Thai pizza and Keith loved the Sriracha Shrimp pizza.)
Pies & Pints also features several local West Virginia Beers to quench your thirst, including pints from:
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some banjo music to download and a little West Virginia moonshine to sample…