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