New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia!
The Long Point Trail in New River Gorge
The newest US National Park (as of March 2022) is New River Gorge in West Virginia!
For those that are unaware the US National Park Service added a new park to its list recently; if we changed our name every time they added one we would now be called Hashtag63!
(We leave that to our wonderful writer and trash cleanup aficionado Jason M on his IG handle.)
But changing our name every time we get a new park would be super confusing from a URL purchasing and social media handling angle so we will be forever stuck at Hashtag59. However that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to celebrate the new additions in style by going to visit them as soon as possible.
For myself, though it was only 4 hours away from where I lived for 15 years, I had never been to New River Gorge in West Virginia.
But when we have stopped bouncing around for a few months (hello puppy training and virtual work going bye bye for one person in our family) and decided to hunker down in Columbus Ohio for six months I wanted to take a new look at how I lived in the area!
I’ve been gone from Central Ohio for basically a year and a half minus a few weeks here and there to vote, get some tattoo’s, and put on a few trash cleanups! Now that I am back I wanted to really explore the midwest and both Columbus and its surrounding regions in a way that I previously didn’t. I am viewing these several months in Columbus as though I have never lived in the area before. Hence this was a perfect time to set up a trip to New River Gorge for my first experience seeing one of the oldest rivers on the continent!
The New River and its Bridge and Gorge on a foggy and wet Saturday in December.
Before I tell my experience on my first visit here let me share a few of the “fun facts” about New River Gorge National Park!
Located in West Virginia this new national park is not new to Native Americans or more recently to outdoor adventurers… the Shawnee are the main Native American tribe to this land and the preserve has been known for great rock climbing and world class whitewater rafting for quite some time. It also lays the odd distinction of being the “2nd longest steel arch bridge in the world” and the longest in the USA!
(Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge knocked it off from the number one world ranking in 2003.)
2. New River Gorge National Park is also host to a beautiful variety of wildlife, plants, protected land, and on Bridge Day every year they close the bridge down and you can walk and base jump off of it! (Amy K talks about it in our West Virginia Podcast Episode HERE!)
3. Most of the pub about New River Gorge is when the “Gaulee Season” opens for around six weeks in the fall and the rapids on the river are some of the most intense and wild around the world. I know several people who have gone rafting during this timeframe and told me it was one of the most intense experiences of their lives. I have heard the same story so many times it has gotten to the point that it has sort of made me a tad nervous about doing it when the Gaulee is opened and you get to experience those Class V Wild Rapids, probably one of these days though I’ll be in for it!
I visited New River Gorge in December though. Winter is a true offseason in this park and no whitewater rafting is being done.
It was also foggy and rainy when I took my trip there, nonetheless I found it to be a perfect time to visit! Only the most dedicated of hikers and dogs were on the trails and led to a chance to really appreciate the quiet and quaint beauty of nature.
The more nomadic and slow traveling we have become the more I enjoy the beauty of visiting places in shoulder season and off-season. I might miss out on something but I know I’ll definitely miss out on the crowds and I’ll gain something else instead.
My new favorite small town in the US: Fayetteville WV!
Below are my highlights from my New River Gorge National Park visit. I hope you enjoy the rundown and get a chance to visit this area of West Virginia!
Hiking:
There were tons of great trails you can do here, and all of them pretty much in any of the seasons. So if you are coming to hike then winter is great. The trails were EMPTY! Rain and fog played a role but it was a blast.
My favorite trails were Long Point and the Endless Wall Trail.
Photography:
The views that you can get of the New River and of plants, flowers, and endless skies are epic in this park. The end of the Long Point Trail would be a great place for a sunrise or sunset and the Kaymoor Mine’s Loop spots would be great places for flowers and plants.
Waterfall Chasing:
Glade Creek and Sandstone Falls, though I didn’t make it there, would be your top spots to sing some TLC and honor Left Eye for her amazing songwriting skills! Chase the waterfalls friends.
Biking/Eating/Camping/Petting Goats:
The Arrowhead Bike Farm has it all! Year-round camping combined with excellent food, bike rentals, and even some mountain bike ramps right there plus their own on-site goats make for a super cool space to spend the night or a fun afternoon. I had a delicious veggie burrito outside with my new friends Adam and Tony from Parkersburg and the owners were LOVELY!
Drinking/Creators:
The Free Folk Brewery brews up some tasty suds and they had a great local maker’s and creator’s market when I swung in for a beer after several wet hikes in the park. Food also looked top notch! I snagged some IPA’s, a gorgeous local photographer’s sunrise print for a friend, and a X mas gift for the current co-host of our podcast!
Rafting/Rock Climbing:
Something has to be saved for a second visit now doesn’t it?! The Endless Wall Trail had several spots to rock climb and there are several reputable rafting companies in the town of Fayetteville WV and the surrounding areas. I’ll be back soon to climb and/or raft!
In conclusion I went when I did to make sure I kept my status of having experienced all the National Parks in the lower 48 of the US.
But, as always, I got so much more than just some checkmarks on a dumb list I created.
I learned about the Shawnee Tribe that are the rightful owners of the land, enjoyed muddy treks up on cliffs in the rain, met lovely people from many places around the country, and got to see that even in offseason New River Gorge National Park is an experience unlike most places in the world.
What I appreciate and enjoy about the US (and all worldwide) National Parks is the fact that in the wave of deforestation, the climate crises, and the ignored pleas to tell the truth about the Natives who are the rightful owners of this land there is still something that we have gotten right with the parks.
The land is now protected, albeit perhaps many years later than it should have been, and it offers you a chance to go to these wild special places and have your perspective changed.
The Rhodendron in the winter are GORGEous :). (Good pun right?)
And why is just getting a chance in changing your perspective important to me?
The chance to change, grow, and remodel your perspective is the chance you are given to change your life, and ultimately, do the best you can to make the world a place where justice is served for all beings on the planet. And for that mere glimpse into perspective change…hopefully will give us the chance to right any wrongs we have placed or committed on these sacred spaces on Pacha Mama.
