New River Gorge National Park

The only thing “new” about New River Gorge is its national park status which it was upgraded to in 2021 from its prior designation as a National River. In fact, the New River is one of the oldest rivers in North America. Coal mining put this region on the map in the late 1800s as it was one of the most important coal-producing corridors in the eastern U.S. In the 1960s and 1970s the region took a big turn in the direction of conservation and recreation. Today New River Gorge is home to world-class whitewater rafting, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and fishing.

New River Gorge is considered the deepest and longest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains, reaching depths of around 1,500 – 1,600 feet. It used to take 40-45 minutes to cross the gorge on the narrow and winding Fayette Station Road, until the bridge was built in 1977, cutting that drive to less than a minute.

The New River Gorge bridge was the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world when it was built and still holds the title of the longest of its kind in the Western hemisphere at 3,030 feet. It’s also among the highest bridges, all 88 million pounds of it towering 876 feet above the New River.

Since New River Gorge is a new national park, it required land acquisitions from state and private entities to establish it’s expanded boundaries from its national river status – boundaries that stretch along 53 miles, or 72,000 acres, of the river and gorge. Technically only 7,000 of those acres are national park, whereas the remaining 65,000 acres are national preserve. Unlike most national parks there is no main entry points or a continuous block of federal land. Rather, park boundaries cross private land, state parks and towns so you often have to leave and reenter the park as you transition to the different sections, or “units”, as they are often referred to.

To simplify, we will refer to the entire 72,000 acres as the “national park” and break this down into the commonly referred to units of the park, from north to south: Bridge Area, Thurmond Historic District, Grandview and Sandstone Falls.

Bridge Area

This is the largest section of the park, adjacent to the small town of Fayetteville, and home to the bridge and many of the popular recreation activities. Most people make the visitor center their first stop and then take the Canyon Rim Boardwalk to the upper and lower (requiring lots of steps) bridge overlooks. The bridge you just drove over, along with 16,000+ other vehicles daily, to get there and barely noticed is completely different from these vantage points. It’s bronze patina arch spans across the gorge in perfect harmony with its surroundings as if it is suspended in air.

Want to get a closer look of the bridge, and an experience of a lifetime? Just down from the visitor center is the privately owned Bridge Walk company, which offers guided tours to walk along the maintenance catwalk underneath the bridge, from end to end. You will be wearing a harness and strapped in the entire way, so they take safety seriously. But wow, 851 feet above the river below walking along a narrow catwalk amongst the steel structure of the bridge with the traffic humming above you! You learn alot about the bridge along the way, like how it is designed to expand by up to two feet. You even get a chance to sit down on the catwalk and dangle your feet over the edge for a while and enjoy the breathtaking view.

When you’re done at the visitor center and overlooks (and Bridge Walk if you dare), I highly recommend taking the 8-mile journey on Fayette Station Road, the original road to cross the gorge before the bridge was built. The mostly one-way road leaves from the visitor center and crosses underneath the bridge three times before climbing back out on the other side of the gorge. You will cross the river on the one-lane Tunney Hunsaker Bridge where you can get another iconic view of the bridge. It’s a timeless off the beaten path drive that you should not miss.

There are two awesome hikes in the bridge area that are well worth considering. The first is Long Point Trail which is a relatively easy 3-mile round trip hike through a forested area on the west side of the gorge. The payoff at the end is possibly the best view of the bridge that you will see. The trail ends at a rock outcropping with a straight on view of the bridge spanning across the gorge. On our early morning hike, it was completely fogged in when we arrived at the viewpoint, with no bridge in site. Then, slowly and mysteriously, the bridge magically appeared before us.

The second hike is the Endless Wall Trail, a little further down the gorge and on the opposite side. The trail can be done as an out and back for a maximum of 5.3 miles or as a loop at about 3.8 miles if you don’t mind walking about a half mile along the road. Either way it’s a pretty easy hike. We started early again to beat the heat and although it was a clear morning the gorge itself was socked in with fog, which actually made for perfect conditions. If you’ve ever been on a high altitude hike with ground fog below, you know what I mean. Whereas Long Point is all about the destination, this trail is all about the journey. Although Diamond Point Lookout is the most spectacular, all the lookouts (marked and unmarked) along the way are unique and amazing with incredible views of the gorge and the “endless wall”, a series of stark drop-offs popular with climbers. You even get a few peaks of the bridge in the distance through the trees. This hike was all it was hyped up to be but it can get very crowded so plan accordingly.

The Nuttallburg Coal Tipple is located in a very remote area of the park, requiring a drive down a beautiful narrow, winding (sometimes gravel, sometimes one-lane) road. Henry Ford purchased Nuttallburg and built the tipple and associated 1,385-foot conveyor in 1920 as a side business that was managed by his son Edsel. Ford was in need of coal for his factories and designed this as an innovative means of getting the coal down from the mine high up on the gorge and into the railcars safely and efficiently. The short trail will get you to the tipple and remains of some of the building such as the company store. About a 1/2-mile further down the easy trail will take you to Seldom Seen, the community where many of the workers lived, and what remains of the structures there. It’s quite fascinating visiting the area, exploring the grounds and learning more about the coal history in this region.

As I mentioned, Fayetteville is the neighboring town to this area of the park and a great place to make your basecamp. We stayed at Rifrafters Campground, a small private campground conveniently located for our exploring needs. There’s not much to the town of Fayetteville but there are several restaurants and breweries. We specifically liked Pies and Pints for good pizza and beer and the (often visited) Cathedral Cafe, located in a restored small stone church, for breakfast and lunch. Their coffee drinks are as good as their food!

We were in Fayetteville for the 4th of July celebration of our countries 250th birthday and really enjoyed the small town festivities and big time fireworks display. It was so nice to see the town (and country) united in patriotism.

Thurmond Historic District

The booming coal industry of the late 1800s brought people to New River Gorge from far and wide, and with it brought the need to transport this coal from the surrounding coal fields. This resulted in the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which was completed in 1873, and the development of Thurmond, a bustling railway town. There was never a main street in Thurmond, just the town buildings located right along the railway because everything in this town was about the railway.

The Great Depression and changing transportation dynamics in the country ultimately led to the demise of Thurmond. In 1995 the National Park Service (NPS) began restoration efforts to the structures in Thurmond and today the area can be experienced through a self guided or ranger led tour. The original train depot is now an NPS visitor center and small museum and actually still operates as an Amtrak station. Thurmond is home to five residents who live on a hill above the town and regularly meet in the town’s small city hall.

Although the historic tour and visitor center is about the extent to what this area of the park has to offer, there are a few things to experience on your way to and from Thurmond.

On the far side of the river, high above Thurmond is one of the best views of the gorge at Concho Rim Overlook. You look out at a horseshoe bend in the river and can see Thurmond down below. The overlook actually isn’t part of the national park, rather owned by ACE Adventure Resort, but open to the public. Taking this small detour on the way to Thurmond is well worth it.

Along the road leading to Thurmond is Dunloup Falls and another must stop. You can literally see the falls from the small parking area but a little bit of scrambling down the hill will get you to a much better vantage point. This beautiful waterfall well exceeded our expectations.

Our next stop after leaving Thurmond was the gristmill at Babcock State Park (more about that later). Yes, we could have certainly backtracked and taken the main road to get there… but Beury Mountain Road offered a much more exciting travel option. This gravel road winds through the forest over the mountain and makes for a fun and easy off-road adventure for any high clearance vehicle.

Grandview

Grandview is located about 45 minutes south of Fayetteville and is a beautiful part of the park with some “grand” views of the gorge and some short but awesome hikes. The Main Overlook requires just a short walk and is one of the best views in the park. It was a bit foggy when we arrived so we did our hikes first and then came back to this viewpoint for a picture perfect moment.

Castle Rock Trail is a short loop trail that you can get on right from the overlook. The first part of the loop travels just under the rim through cool rock formations. The return part of the loop offers a couple more overlook opportunities including North Overlook, which is accessed from a short spur trail off of the main trail.

On the other side of Main Overlook is the Tunnel Trail. This is an even shorter trail and although it doesn’t offer any gorge views it makes up for that with amazing rock formations along the way. We’re glad we didn’t skip this one. These two trail combined were just under 2 miles.

The last overlook at Grandview is Turkey Spur Overlook which you can drive to or continue your hike from Castle Rock, adding another 3.2 miles to the journey. Either way, once you get to this overlook you will climb 160 steps to two different viewing platforms with views of the gorge from different directions. The climb was well worth it but glad we didn’t add onto the hike on what was a hot and sticky morning.

Sandstone Falls

Visiting Sandstone Falls is as much about the journey as it is the destination. Start your journey at the Sandstone Visitor Center to see the exhibits and discuss your route with one of the rangers. Then you will head south on Highway 20 towards the town of Hinton.

Highway 20 is a beautiful drive and where we saw a black bear along the way. There are a couple of roadside overlooks to stop at along the way with Sandstone Falls Overlook being the most significant. The falls are a ways in the distance and the tree cover makes it challenging but still a nice stop.

On the far end of Hinton the road will cross the river and continue northbound on the other side as Highway 26 and ultimately take you to Sandstone Falls. Although Sandstone Falls is the largest waterfall on the New River is actually only drops 10-25 feet. What makes it special is that it is 1,500 feet across, spanning the entire river. It’s a very unique waterfall, more like a series of wide cascades split by islands forming a low, powerful wall of water.

A 1/2-mile boardwalk takes you onto the island with several viewpoints of the falls. You can extend this to the short Island Loop Trail, but I’m not sure it provides any additional views of the falls but will provide a better sense of how different this part of the river and gorge is from areas to the north.

You’ll have to backtrack when you leave the falls but this provides a great opportunity to visit Hinton for some lunch at Market on Courthouse Square. This small cafe right in town is a great place for burgers, sandwiches and pizza… and some awesome desserts (so I hear).

Adjoining State Parks

Nearby Babcock State Park is a beautiful area and should be added to any New River Gorge visit. The park offers the typical activities such as camping, hiking and even access to a small lake. However, the star of this park is the Glade Creek Grist Mill, probably the most photographed spot in West Virginia. Although this is not a historic mill, rather a recreation built in 1976 as a “living monument” to the 500+ grist mills that once existed across West Virginia. However, it was built using parts from three different historic West Virginia mills, including: the structural timbers from one mill, the water wheel from another and machinery from a third. It’s basically a “Frankenstein” of real 1800s mills—but done authentically. It’s also a fully functioning grist mill and sits above the river like a model on the runway waiting for you to take her picture.

Hawks Nest State Park is located 20 minutes north of Fayetteville and is conjoined with the northern edge of the national park. This small state park has a lodge, a small nature center, a few hiking trails and scenic viewpoints. This location gives you an opportunity to see the northern edge of the gorge and even the bridge in the far distance from the back deck of the nature center. The Lover’s Leap Overlook is accessible via a short trail from the nature center but the better overlook is Hawks Nest Overlook, a couple minute drive down the road, or alternately via the difficult Cliffside Trail. This view gives you a direct shot down the gorge in addition to a great view of the Hawks Nest Dam. It also brings to light an unusual feature of the New River, in that it flows from south to north.

If you continue up the road for another 10 minutes or so beyond the park you come to Cathedral Falls, which is another great stop in the area. The falls are accessible right from a roadside parking lot but you can also take a short trail, or scramble on the rocks, to get right underneath these beautiful falls.

On the way to the falls right along the road you will notice a quirky place called Mystery Hole. It’s only open on the weekend so we couldn’t check this place out that self proclaims to be “the best kept secret in West Virginia”. If you dare to stop by for a tour drop us a note in the comments and let us know what we missed.

Navigating the different units of the park was easier than we thought but the maps we picked up at the visitor center were a big help. We had some very hot weather and some rainy days during our 2+ week visit so it was nice to pick and choose areas based on activity and required effort rather than taking a more systematic geographic approach. From historic tours to epic hikes and thrill seeking adventures, New River Gorge has it all!

Be sure to check out our pictures from the area.