West Virginia: New River Gorge

Monday the 28th of October we completed our drive to the New River Gorge National River. One of the surprising thing about this place was that there were no entrance fees and no camping fees. I'd be willing to pay money to spend time here (though I'd hope that it wouldn't be too pricey if they did decide to start charging money). We arrived at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center in the early evening, checked out the New River Gorge Bridge, then headed for a campsite.

The New River Gorge Bridge

We camped for the night at Stone Cliff Campground, right along the beach by the New River. It was a great spot and one of the first nights that didn't feel freezing cold, so we fixed dinner and sat around our beach fire, watching the infrequent trains go along their merry way across the river from us, until the rain kicked in and we called it a night.

West Virginia coal train - 10 second exposure

The next morning (Oct 29) we decided to go for a bike ride on a trail that started near our campsite. It was a little challenging due to many wet leaves covering rocks and downed tree bits, as well as mucky spots where water drained down to the river. It was a fun ride though, and we enjoyed a hike near the end of the trail, when it got less fun to ride. We walked back to our bikes and enjoyed our ride back to the campsite.

The New River.

A cute little snail on the bottom of a tree along our bike path.

Closer...

Rob. Biking. Duh. ;)

When we got back to our campsite, we took the rock crawler out for a spin and walked along the nearby bridge over the river to check out the area some more. We also saw some fascinating wasps nests (we think) that were built completely differently from ones we're used to seeing.

Jumping spider!

Our Stone Cliff campsite.

Looking downriver from our campsite.

Rock crawling at Stone Cliff Campground by the New River, with a bridge in the background.

On the bridge, looking back across the New River at Stone Cliff Campground and the Rialta. 

In the afternoon, we decided to head to another campground, so as to see even more of the New River Gorge. There were gravel roads on the park map that looked like they'd take us to our next campsite. Halfway there, though, we met up with some other visitors that had been told by some locals to turn back or they'd get their car stuck, which they almost did end up doing. We didn't have much better ground clearance than they did, so we took their recommendation and turned around as well. Hopefully we can go again sometime in a higher clearance vehicle and enjoy more of the gravel roads. :)

Viny scenery, looking down from a gravel road.

Topiaries? :) But really, just cool looking vine covered trees.

We camped for the night at Glade Creek Campground, also still free, which had a half dozen big sites for pull-in camping, and a half dozen riverside sites for walk-in camping. We enjoyed our campsite, had another good night of food and fire, and got a treat of seeing little dots of glowing bugs down near the river as we walked there to fill our bucket for dousing the fire.

Bridges over the New River near Glade Creek Campground.

Wednesday, October 30th, we drove to the Grandview Overlook in hopes of a grand view (ah ha ha ha, I'm so funny), but the misty day made it a little tough, though we got some neat views of the clouds hanging out in the valleys, and some snippets of the river.

Looking down into the gorge from Grandview Overlook.  This shot covers about 120 degrees from edge to edge.

We hoped to hike or bike around the area, but the trails we wanted to take were closed for various reasons, so we decided to head to Sandstone Falls. There were two overlooks of the falls along the way, but the mists were still hanging around, and trees like to grow in just the right place to block the best view, so we continued on to the falls.

The New River was about a thousand yards down the hill from here.  Somewhere.

A farm on the New River. 

The crossover to the other side of the river was in the town of Hinton, WV, which had a neat bridge that we decided to pull over and walk back across. The river was wide and smooth, and train tracks sat along the riverbank, setting a lovely scene by the town.

Train tracks in Hinton, WV.

The river at Sandstone Falls is very wide, so we tramped along a trail, then amongst the rocks of the river. The mist had cleared, so we had a pleasant hour or two playing outside, avoiding poison ivy, trying not to slip on algae-fied rocks, etc. It was great!

Sandstone falls from the West.

Just above the falls.

The New River, near Sandstone Falls.

After our enjoyable traipse through the outdoors, we headed east towards the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Stay tuned for our next adventure featuring Douthat State Park, Halloween, and more great times!