West Virginia Day 3 and 4

May 25, 2014 

Gauley Bridge Waterfall

Off to an early start yet again. The adventure that awaited us was water rafting with the River Expeditions Company. We rafted the Upper New River, which is class I-III rapids. Our guide, Kim, was great. I was kind of surprised on how little paddling was actually involved – only between 2 to 5 strokes at once and only a handful of times. Breakfast provided before the trip, lunch provided riverside, and drinks provided when we returned.

We searched long and hard for an ice cream place (other than Dairy Queen) near the rafting location and luckily were able to find a place that recently opened called “The Stache”.  There were many hard serve flavors to choose from. The place also had all sorts of candy and toys.

After dinner at camp, we ventured out to find a waterfall that we passed on the way into WV. We found the huge gorgeous waterfall on the side of the road in Gauley Bridge. We had a ton of fun traversing the rocks to get the best views of the falls.

A view from Hawks Nest State Park

Heading back to camp for the night, we stopped to check out the overlooks at Hawks Nest State Park. It was a short walk with rewarding views.

WV Capitol - Charleston

May 26, 2014 

Since there was a long drive ahead of us we packed up and left camp around 8am. Traffic was not too bad at all. We stopped by the capitol in Charleston – luckily it was an easy on and off of the freeway. I had hoped to stop by the capitol in Columbus also, but traffic always seems to be heavy in the area so we skipped it. 

West Virginia Day 2

May 24, 2014 

Babcock State Park Grist Mill

There was a big list of places to visit today. The first stop was Babcock State Park. Babcock State Park is one of the oldest in West Virginia and is located in the New River Gorge National River area. There is a very popular grist mill at the park that people from all over take photographs of. The water was not yet running in the wheel when we were there and we did not get a chance to go later in the day.

Our next destination was the New River Gorge Sandstone Visitor Center. This visitor center had lots of informative displays and a 12-minute video. There were not any views from the site.

So close, yet so far was the Sandstone Falls. The falls are only about 3.5 miles from the visitor center if you were a bird, but since we are not it took about 20 miles to get the falls. The parking area was packed. Many of the people visiting were fishing. We were able to snag a picnic table and enjoy our lunch at the falls.

Sandstone Falls

Before hitting our next major location, we made a quick stop to check out the Bluestone National Scenic River at the dam. There is not a visitor center for the Bluestone. To reach the water the best option is Pipestem Resort State Park, which was pretty far out of our way.

Thurmond Depot

Onward we went…next on the docket was the Grandview area of the New River Gorge.  The Grandview visitor center was not open there, but we did checkout the overlooks.

The last stop of the day was the Thurmond Depot area of the New River Gorge.  The town of Thurmond is an old ghost town. During the beginning of the 20^th century, Thurmond was the commercial center for the region. There is a visitor center with a few displays and well as the remaining structures that still exist to check out.

West Virginia Day 1

May 23, 2014 

New River Gorge Bridge

Yahoo!  Another adventure and three more NP stamps down! This trip was about an eight-hour drive to our base camp in Hico, WV. We camped at a place called Ray’s Campground. It had really good reviews on trip advisor. The campground was nice and had really clean bathrooms. Camp was pretty loud the first night and got quieter as the days progressed.

We left at a decent time and were able to set up camp and visit the New River Gorge Canyon Rim Visitor Center before it closed.  We checked out the overviews of the New River Gorge Bridge from the visitor center. We then drove the scenic Fayette Station Road. The visitor center has a CD that you can listen to while you are driving the route.

Gauley River

After a quick dinner at camp, we headed to Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park. We visited this site since it was supposed to offer the best views of the Gauley River. The drive to the state park had overlooks of the dam. The Gauley River National Recreation Area is 25 miles long, but does not have a visitor center. The river is a world class whitewater rafting location in the fall months.

We also pulled over to check out Summersville Lake - so pretty!

Later in the evening we were joined by our friends from Ohio – Pete, Suzanne and Tommy.

Summersville Lake