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