New River Gorge

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Bear Mountain Cabins & Campground

On Sunday I made the drive from the Shenandoah National Park area to the New River Gorge area to the Bear Mountain Cabins & Campground. Campsite at Bear Mountain Cabins & Campground The campground was beautiful and not very busy during the week which was nice, plus it was less than five minutes away from the New River Gorge’s Canyon Rim Visitor Center. It also worked out well for my parents since there were Mom approved cabins (read: cabins with indoor plumbing) in the campground for them to stay at.

New River Gorge Bridge

After dropping off my trailer, I went to the visitor center to get my passport stamp and see the bridge. The bridge is an impressive feat of engineering, at 876 feet high and 3,030 feet long, it is the longest steel span in the western hemisphere. New River Gorge Bridge from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center If you take the steps down to the viewing platform you get a nice view of the New River and the old bridge as well. New River flowing through the gorge

Endless Wall Trail

Monday morning I did two trails, neither were very long or had much elevation, but both had a ton of shallow roots that made rolling your ankle all too easy. The first trail I did was the Endless Wall Trail. There were a lot of overlooks into the gorge, and also some good views of the sheer rock face in this area that make it popular with climbers. The sheer rock face in this part of the gorge I had picked the three mile loop, and while it may be necessary to do during some of the peak season due to parking, the last half mile or so was walking along a road. If given the choice to do it again, I would pick one of the parking lots that are farther east and make it an out and back trail instead.

Long Point Trail

Long Point trail was another three mile trail, this time an out and back, with the destination being an overlook of the bridge and gorge. Final view from the Long Point Trail of the New River Gorge Bridge There were some beautiful leaf colors along this trail, but unfortunately with the sun just about straight up it was difficult to get a good picture of any still in the trees. Burnt orange and yellow leaf on the ground

Fayette Station Road

Monday afternoon my parents and I did the scenic Fayette Station Road drive. It’s “only” eight miles long, but takes about 40 minutes to drive as it cuts down the canyon, crosses a small, single lane bridge, then goes back up the canyon on the other side, and is the route cars had to take before they built the current bridge. It was a very pretty drive with a great view of the new bridge from the old bridge, but I sure would hate having to take that route all the time as some of the cutbacks were pretty tight with a longer vehicle. View of the New River Gorge Bridge from the old bridge

Grandview

Tuesday morning we went to the Grandview section of New River Gorge. The main overlook was right by the visitor center and parking lot, and it was an awesome view of the gorge. View of the bend in the New River from the Grandview main overlook Next we did the 1.5 mile (one way) or so hike to Turkey Spur. The hike was fairly easy with lots of good overlooks along the way, except for one small section of rock “stairs” that could use some improvements. At the end of the hike were 150 steps up to a viewing platform with more views of the gorge. View of the gorge from Turkey Spur

Sandstone

Next we drove to the Sandstone Visitor Center to grab another stamp in our passport books and figure out how to see this area of the park. The first stop we made was the Sandstone Falls Overlook. View of the Sandstone Falls from the Sandstone Falls Overlook This was mostly just a large shoulder on the side of the road with a short walk to an overlook, it was a good view to see the scale of the falls. It might be interesting to see this in the spring if the water was up a little higher, although with a dam not too far up river I’m not sure how much, if any, higher the water gets. After driving through the town of Hinton and crossing the New River, we had a picnic lunch at Brooks Falls. Dad, Mom, and I in front of Brooks Falls While it was a very nice day use area with picnic tables, calling them falls seemed a little generous. We then headed to the Sandstone Falls boardwalk to see those falls up close. View of the Sandstone Falls from the boardwalk I did the half mile Island Loop trail from the boardwalk as well, although it didn’t really seem worth it.

Bluestone National Scenic River

Just a few miles south of the Sandstone Falls is the Bluestone National Scenic River. View of the Bluestone River from Bluestone State Park Since we were in the area, we swung by to see it and get one more stamp in our passport books, although I feel like I might have to return and give it a little more time hiking the area for me to really feel good about calling it completed.

Wednesday I made the five hour drive back home to wrap up another awesome trip!