Let's Go (Back to) Places: New River Gorge NP, West Virginia

 

 

Friends, this is the story of how I fit the puzzle pieces together for my latest road trip.  If you are not in the mood to see gorgeous things, you might want to skip this post.

How This Trip Came To Be

The next round of state capitals on my Capital/Capitol Quest List was North and South Carolina, which are approximately eight to nine hours away from home.  I needed a halfway stopping point to break up the drive, and boy oh boy I was not sorry that the most logical option was New River Gorge NP in West Virginia.  I had an epic day of hiking there back in 2024, and I knew it was only a matter of time before my travels would put me back in that direction.

I made a list of everything that I wanted to do and when I could do it and came up with the following plan:

April 14 Tuesday: leave home mid day and drive to Fayetteville, West Virginia, approximately five hours from home.

April 15 Wednesday: New River Gorge bridge tour in the morning, whatever epic NRG things I could fit in after that.

April 16 Thursday: more NRG stuff, drive to Columbia, South Carolina and try to find something to do on the way.

April 17 Friday: do stuff in Columbia.

April 18 Saturday: drive to Raleigh, North Carolina, do Raleigh stuff.

April 19 Sunday: do Raleigh stuff.

April 20 Monday: go back to the NRG area, do epic stuff either there or along the way (spoiler, I found something epic to do along the way).

April 21 Tuesday: do something in the NRG area, come home.

That's the plan, now let's execute it!

Let's Drive to Fayetteville

The drive to Fayetteville was uneventful, which is exactly how I like my drives.  I made a brief detour to the Summerville lighthouse before heading into town.  Yes Virginia, there are lighthouses in West Virginia.

According to Google, I was there during business hours, but there was a closed sign in the admissions building, so that was that.  I took a leg stretching break to enjoy the view of Summerville Lake, so I wasn't mad.

Also worth mentioning, there were butterflies everywhere.

After that I headed for Fayetteville, which was my home for the next two nights.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!

The unit was a very small, one bedroom apartment in a building that had a restaurant on the ground floor.  The host was excruciatingly clear that there was a business that made noise in the building, and all of the reviews said that it was not a big deal.  Verdict: the reviewers were correct.  The restaurant noise was gone by 10:30, so I slept well while I was there.

Pros: 

• Location, location, location.  Parking can be tricky in Fayetteville, so having a dedicated parking space and a prime downtown location put me in the center of cute small town goodness.  NRG was a very short drive away.
• Hey it wasn't a palace but there was nothing wrong with the unit.
• There was no picture of the shower in the listing, which I assumed meant the dreaded Tiny Shower situation that I've bemoaned before.  However, that was not the case.  The shower was normal sized.

Cons:

• My only beef is that the TV was in the bedroom and the couch was not comfortable.  If I wanted the only viable hangout place to be the bed, I would have stayed in a hotel.  But that's a minor complaint and I would stay there again (and hope to, since I'm not done with NRG).

Let's Tour the Bridge!

Let me quickly explain why the New River Gorge Bridge is such a big deal.  Before the bridge was built, the only way across the gorge was a treacherous drive down narrow mountain roads.  As our tour guide put it, "before the bridge was built it was a 45 minute drive to get across.  Now it's 45 seconds.  And I've done it in 30."

After the mining industry dried up, the area was turned back to nature and was eventually designated as a national park.  As of May 2026 when I am writing this, it is the US's "newest" NP.  Admission to the park itself is free, but there are a number of paid activities that are operated by private companies, such as the bridge walk that I was about to do.  

The tour began at the tour company, where we were all given harnesses.  The rules on what we were allowed to carry were very strict: no purses, no food or drink, and all cameras and phones had to be physically strapped on.  If you don't have a strap on your phone, the company will sell one to you for $6 (which is what I did).  Once we were all set, they took us to the bridge entryway by bus.  The entry point is under lock and key.

With that we were off.  The distance is approximately half a mile, but between all of the rules and regulations, the bus ride to and back, and the walk itself, the tour takes about two hours.  We were on the bridge for a full hour.

I don't know much about engineering, but even I know that big structures like bridges are built to have a little sway in them.  As our guide put it, "it's normal for the bridge to move.  It's not normal for you, but it's normal for the bridge."  The movement took just a minute to get used to.

So given that I do not normally do activities that require safety equipment or involve extreme heights, you may be wondering why on earth the bridge walk was at the top of my list for my return visit to NRG.

Here is the answer:

While we were on the bridge, our guide dropped a ton of fun facts and local history on us.  My two favorite gems:

• The New River is...wait for it...the second oldest river in the world.  The Nile is the oldest river.  As our guide put it, when explorers found the river, it was new to them, hence the name.
• She told us the story of Mary Draper Ingles, whose visit to the NRG was a lot rougher than ours.  She was a young wife and mother living in Virginia in 1755 when her settlement was attacked by the Shawnee, and she, her children, and several other people were taken captive and marched hundreds of miles away.  After a few months Mary and another woman had the chance to escape, and were able to retrace their steps for the hundreds of miles back...with minimal clothes and food.  Our guide told us that a book had been written "with no detail spared" about the ordeal called Follow the River.  As soon as the tour was over, I got myself on Libby and checked out the audiobook.  I'll tell you more about it the next time that we chat about books, but safe to say that if you want an incredible story with a bit of "no detail spared" stuff, this is your book.

Eventually we reached the other side of the bridge where the bus was waiting to take us back.  I think that it's fair to say that no one was ready for the tour to end.  It's about $80, so it was not cheap, and it was also worth every penny.

Let's Visit a Ghost Town and See Other Epic Things in NRG

After the bridge tour, I consulted my list of things to do in NRG.  My next priority was going to Thurmond, which was once a booming mining town and now has a population of five (5) people.

It also has an active Amtrak station.

The reason why I wanted to go to Thurmond sooner rather than later is that I heard that some of the buildings will be demolished soon.  

That was kind of it for Thurmond.  There is a visitor's center in the same building as the Amtrak station, but it was closed when I was there.

My next stop was the Concho overlook.  You can say what you want about social media, but the way that I learned about NRG was through a random Facebook post with a picture of the gorge taken from the overlook.  Now I was there to see it for myself.

My next stop from my notes was Wolf Creek Falls, and I did not realize until I went there that going to the Falls took care of another item on my list, which was to drive from one side of the gorge to the other without the benefit of the bridge.  It was a long drive on a narrow, one lane mountain road.

With that my day was complete and I headed back to the Airbnb.

Let's See More Things in NRG

The next day I packed up the car and headed out to see more epic sights in the NRG area.

Stop 1: Cathedral Falls

Stop 2: Hawk's Nest State Park

I first stopped at the overlook, and then headed out to the trailhead for something called the Rail Trail, which is a four mile hike.  However, the trailhead was closed, so I drove around a bit down a narrow mountain road.  I got to another trailhead that was on the route, but (1) I wasn't sure if the trail was closed and (2) my spidey senses told me that this was not the day to hike.  While I'm very comfortable traveling alone, I have this thing where I don't like to be too alone, if that makes sense, and I was getting the "I am too alone" vibes.  

Before calling it a day, I walked for just a little bit and encountered a minefield of butterflies.

With that I was wheels up for my next stop, which was Columbia, South Carolina.  But that's a story for another day.

Let's Recap New River Gorge

It's a gorgeous, low cost place to hang out.  There are more things that I want to do there, so it's a given that I will be back.  As far as when to go, you can't beat the leaf peeping in the fall, but a spring visit offers wildflowers and butterflies.  I'd say that anytime with decent weather is the right time to go.

If someone asked me for recommendations for a two day trip to NRG, here is what I would tell them:

• Stay in Fayetteville for easy access.
• Go to the main visitor center and do the short walk to the bridge to get the lay of the land.
• Hike!  The three hikes that I did last fall were perfect.  I did them all in one day but since this is a theoretical two day trip it would make sense to split them up between the days.
• Endless Wall
• Long Point (if you can only do one hike, do this one because it's the easiest and the view from the cliff at the turnaround is the best of the best).
• Kaymoor Miners Trail - this is the one that has 800 stairs (800 stairs down and 800 stairs up) and a whole lotta steep in addition to the stairs.  On hearing this your gut reaction will either be "hells yeah" or "this does not sound like fun".  Go with your gut!
• Bridge walk (buy tickets in advance, takes about two hours total).
• Drive the gorge.  Setting your GPS for Wolf Creek Falls will get you there (the falls are a short walk from the trailhead).
• If time allows, hop over to Beckley and do the Mine Tour (spoiler: that's what I did on my way back home, so we'll chat about this more in the next post.  The tour plus my wanderings around the site took about two hours).
• If time allows, go to the Concho overlook.

Thanks for the good times, New River Gorge!  See ya soon to talk you through the rest of the trip.