When we got engaged at Grand Canyon National Park, our hiking friends suggested we buy a National Parks passport to collect stamps at more parks on our journey through life together. Since we live in Virginia, we’ve been to Shenandoah National Park many times – it’s so nice to have it just down the road from us! In 2020, the New River Gorge in West Virginia became a national park so we made a plan to travel there for our anniversary!
Day 1
New River Gorge National Park is about a three hour drive from our house, so we arrived at the visitor center in Fayetteville, West Virginia at 10am. First things first, we got our passport stamped! The park is comprised of 70,000 acres of land along the New River – one of the oldest rivers in North America. One of the ways to cross the river is a huge bridge! Prior to the completion of the New River Gorge Bridge in 1977, it took about 40 minutes to drive down narrow mountain roads to traverse the river, but now it only takes about a minute! The bridge is over 3,000 feet long with a single 1,700 foot long steel arch for support; it was once the world’s longest single-span arch bridge. At 876 feet above the river, it is the third highest bridge in the United States, and used for BASE jumping on “Bridge Day” each October.
Near the visitor center, there is a boardwalk/stairway that we took to an overlook so we could get a nice view of the bridge.
We asked a ranger which trails she would recommend and we decided to try the Endless Walls trail even though it’s a popular trail with limited parking. We got lucky and there were still several parking spots so we hopped out and got on the trail! About a month prior to our trip, Greg sprained his ankle badly playing basketball. Sprains take a while to heal, but he was doing well enough for moderate hikes. Within the first 50 feet of the trail, however, he tripped on his bad foot! Luckily he didn’t re-sprain it or anything, he just sort of stretched it beyond what was comfortable so it was painful. He took it in stride and we continued the hike with no further injuries.
The Endless Walls trail is about a mile out to Diamond Point and a mile back to the parking lot. There were some nice lookouts along the way; we saw some rock climbers coming up the cliffs below us and some whitewater rafters floating down the river. The views from Diamond Point were beautiful!
Next, we drove into town – Fayetteville – and had lunch at Cathedral Cafe, an old church converted into a restaurant, juice bar, and bookstore.
We browsed a few shops in the area – we really liked Lost Appalachia Trading Co. It’s a clothing/art store with really cool designs that are right up our alley! We each got a shirt and some art prints.
Around 2:30, we arrived at our Airbnb called The Barn Loft. You literally stay in the loft of a barn in a woman’s backyard and it was very charming.
You have to climb the hayloft ladder to get to the bedroom but it’s all clean and super cute. There are string lights in the rafters and an adorable bed and vintage furniture. The walls of the barn are not insulated, so it would be tough to stay there in cooler weather, but we got lucky with a warm weekend in early October. One downside is the bathroom is in their house, so you have to go in through their back porch, through the kitchen and into the guest bathroom any time you need to go. We never saw the host though, so it ended up being private. It was a bummer to have to put on shoes and climb down the ladder to go to the bathroom during the night, but she keeps the string lights on outside all night so it was actually kind of fun to walk the stone path to their house in the dark. It’s not for everyone, but we really had a nice experience there!
While resting in the barn loft for a little bit, we decided what to do for the rest of the afternoon. We drove down to Gauley Bridge and checked out Cathedral Falls, but it was pretty dry so we just had to imagine it overflowing with water. Since we had been seeing the river from high above, I wanted to find a place to see it at water level. We walked along the Gauley Bridge and found a little path where we could stand on the river bank. It was really pretty with the tall mountains above the water.
I had heard that Hawk’s Nest State Park had a good view of the river, so we headed over there. We could see a hydropower station and some more nice views. The roads were very winding, but I expected that in the West Virginia mountains.
We headed back to Fayetteville and had dinner at Pies & Pints. We had to wait about an hour, but it was worth it for the heirloom tomato pizza we had. There weren’t a ton of restaurant options in the small downtown area, but this was a really good one.
We came back to the Airbnb and spent the night in the barn loft surprisingly not too cold considering the walls are open to the elements. It was basically glamping, which we had never done before.
Day 2
We got up at 6am to get ready for our ATV tour! When I went inside to use the bathroom in the morning, I got to pet the host’s cat, Betsy, who was sleeping on the guest bed. The host mentioned her in the information packet so I was happy to meet her and she was very sweet!
We drove about 20 minutes to New River ATV and got our CamelBaks ready for a 3 hour tour. I told Greg to put his ID in his bag because we would need to show it into order to drive the ATVs. He swore he just had his wallet, but suddenly he couldn’t find it! We looked all over (and under) the car and it couldn’t be found. I texted the Airbnb host to see if maybe it fell out of Greg’s pocket while he climbed down the ladder, but she didn’t see it anywhere either. Luckily, we weren’t asked for our ID’s and we were all set to ride the ATVs. (After the tour, we kept searching for his wallet and I ended up finding it in the corner of a pocket on his luggage. Phew!)
We had a guide and one other couple with us who had ridden ATVs before. We had ridden them once before in New Zealand, but this was a different style and I wasn’t used to the power! I wasn’t too comfortable going fast so I held us up a little, but I had fun and got better as we went on. The seats on these were more comfortable to sit on than the sporty quad bikes we drove in New Zealand – these were tanks! They could go over anything: huge rocks, large branches, and deep mud puddles. We got really muddy on the lower part of our legs because the mud was so deep! I could feel it spilling into my rainboots.
We stopped at a really pretty overlook at sunrise and saw the mist in the mountains. So beautiful!
Another small tour group came and their guide talked to us about the history, geology, and nature of the area which was really cool. We headed back the way we came and finally got to the car to attempt to clean off the mud. I had brought a towel, so we used that to wipe the mud off and we changed our pants and shoes. Since we had already checked out of our Airbnb, we were condemned to be slightly muddy for the rest of the day but we managed to get fairly clean.
We drove to Fayetteville for lunch at the Wood Iron Eatery. I got the “Hipster Bread”: sourdough toast, ricotta cheese, avocado, pickled red onions, salt, and an egg. Greg got the “Loaded Napoleon D Tots” – so yummy!
After lunch, we started our drive back home with some stops along the way. Our first stop was to Babcock State Park to see the Glade Creek Grist Mill. I had seen photos of it and Greg bought an art print of it, so we figured we should see it in person! It was really pretty with the changing leaves and waterfall.
We went inside and learned a little about the mill, which is still a working mill! We took a short hike on the Island in the Sky trail and then stopped in the gift shop to buy some corn meal that was ground using the mill.
Next, we headed to Sandstone Falls. We stopped at the overlook first to see the falls from way up high, then decided to drive all the way down the mountain to be able to see the falls much closer. It was so worth the drive! We parked and walked on a boardwalk and then hopped off the path and onto some rocks (others did the same) to see the waterfall from an even better view. The waterfall is short and wide so it’s like a bunch of mini waterfalls making up one big one.
We spent a lot of time just sitting on the rocks admiring the falls.
After stopping at a nearby Kroger for some snacks, we drove the 2.5 hours home. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in West Virginia and definitely want to go back to New River Gorge National Park to explore more of the trails! White water rafting is very popular there, so maybe we will do that sometime as well.
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
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