New River Gorge

From Wikipedia – The New River Gorge is the deepest river gorge east of the Mississippi River. The park is primarily the lower gorge area around the New River Gorge Bridge, which features some of the country’s best whitewater rafting. There are also smaller noncontiguous sections showcasing the historic ghost town of Thurmond, the scenic Grandview vista, and Sandstone Falls. The other 65,165 acres of the redesignated national river is now a national preserve, spanning 53 mi of the New River.

• Established: 12/27/2020
• Annual Visitors:
• Size: 7,021 acres

Getting to the park:

We left Mississippi and got a Geocache at the Alabama Welcome Center.  Another cache in a state which neither Rangeley, Gary or I have never been to! 

Mississippi and Alabama have been lovely to drive through on our way towards West Virginia. Yes, it’s summer and the high humidity is confusing my usually dry hair, but we are used to the heat. The thick green evergreens and deciduous trees line Interstates 20 and 59, (I59 is often I20 as well). The scenery is very similar to driving I89 in Vermont where Gary was born and we both were raised. We have only made one ‘turn” since we left Phoenix 6 days ago. We drove on I10 east for 2 days then merging on to I20 which we stayed on into day 6!

RE: our last post under “Roaming Rangeley” on our blog…One last interesting fact about Laurel, Mississippi.  Established in 1882 and called the Pine Belt, in the early 1900’s, “…Laurel milled and shipped more yellow pine than anywhere else in the world”! (www.laurelMS.com). 

We were pleasantly surprised how nice most of Laurel was and are so glad HGTV’s Home Town, with Erin & Ben Napier, have made it their mission to revitalize their personal home town. Even the locals we spoke to appreciate the historical renovations, visitors, new residents and money it’s bringing into this once thriving lumber mecca.

We passed through the NW corner of Georgia heading to our next overnight in Knoxville, TN. We’re getting closer to New River Gorge!

Rangeley’s life is getting better each mile we drive eastward. He’s gotten fed an hour earlier every few days. We drove through several time zones: starting in Pacific, proceeding into Mountain, Central then Eastern!

Leaving Tennessee, we continued through Virginia into West Virginia. We have now driven through ten states so far! AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, VA, WV!  We are staying in Fayetteville, WV for two nights, just a few miles from the New River Gorge Canyon Rim Visitor Center. This is Rangeley’s 41^st national park, in just the past 10 months! NRG is our 50th.

New River Gorge National Park Day 1

The first thing we did was to stop at the visitor center to get our passport book stamped, a collectable post card and a lapel pin, which we place onto a map on our living room wall at home. We then got home made coconut fudge at Canyon Rim Gifts close to the visitor center….yummm!

We started our first hike in NRGNP at Endless Wall Trailhead. We walked a mile into the lush Rhododendron forest to Diamond Point, a roughly 800-foot cliff dropping to the New River below. The views of the New River Gorge Bridge…the longest arched bridge in western hemisphere was wonderful. The bridge was built in 1977 and made the previous 45-minute drive around the gorge into a 45 second trip across the river!

I took some great shots of Gary and Rangeley on the rim and of four rafting boats going through some rapids down below!

Rangeley loved the out and back trail as we crossed the shallow, swiftly flowing Fern Creek twice!

We then took the Fayette Station Road Tour driving from the rim to the river and back up to Fayetteville where we are staying. At the river, we pulled into a parking area with access to the water. There was a group of about 10 people and two dogs at this rocky beach. One of the dogs, a golden doodle named Cooper (also our 33-yr. old son’s name!), romped in the river with Rangeley dodging a kayaker learning to roll and kids on inner tubes. All were totally fine with, and thoroughly enjoyed, the canine antics! To top it off, I think the four rafting boats that passed by the beach, were the four I took pictures of from atop the rim an hour and a half previously!

Beer, pizza and antipasto salad sitting at a picnic table outside at Pies and Pints Brewery in Fayetteville rounded out our first day at the newest national park in this incredibly beautiful country.

New River Gorge  Day 2 – 07/13/21

Our goal today was to head to the southern end of the park and make our way back north toward our hotel in Fayetteville, WV. The park is not large but as the Vermonter in me would say: “You can’t get they-ah from he-ah!”. Lots of beautiful and historical places to see in New River Gorge National Park…but… they require several out and backs.

After about an hour drive from our hotel, we reached Sandstone Visitor Center in the southern end of the park. Now, the smart planner would have researched this park and realized our itinerary, yesterday, should have included visiting this section first since we came from the southwestern side of the park driving in, but one of my favorite sayings is “It is what it is!” ; )’  To avoid repeat scenery, we took back roads vs. the interstate and saw new areas. The volunteers at the visitor centers are all very pleasant and full of hiking, planning and scenery knowledge.

We wanted to see Sandstone Falls. The 2 mile distance (as the crow flies) required an 18 mile drive. Starting on the eastern side of New River, by the Sandstone Visitor Center we headed south, through the town of Hinton, across the river and almost equal distance northward on the west side of the river to see Sandstone Falls. Total driving time, one way, is about 30 minutes but I like stopping at all the overlooks so it took us a pleasurably longer amount of time 😊.

On this drive, Sandstone Overlook and Brooks Overlook allow for great views of the river, the thick, green trees and the rolling horizon.

Upon reaching Sandstone Falls parking area I noticed an outhouse building…good to know.  There’s a boardwalk to view the Lower Sandstone Falls and further out the well built boardwalk is Upper Sandstone Falls. Together the largest falls on the New River span 1500 feet across with 10-25 foot drops. Its name comes from the hard type of stone on the river’s bed.

Rangeley loved the pools of water slightly away from the bottom of the falls where he could jump in, swim, chase sticks and play throughout the rocks and fallen trees to his heart’s content! See pictures below.

We then took a short hike on the Island Loop Trail. A wooded dirt path with New River on one side and a creek with lots of beaver activity on the other.

The entire NRGNP is dog friendly! Pups can go anywhere, outside in the park, including all trails. A rare find and we took full advantage of it. Admittedly, you are supposed to have them on lead at all times, but thankfully the areas where we “disobeyed” the rules , were not busy and/or had other dogs off lead too! We, of course, always pick up after him : )

On the way back to the east side of the river we stopped in the historic town of Hinton, WV.  Just as all the towns in this New River Gorge area, Hinton became a town (1871) because of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company (C & O) transporting timber, coal and passengers through this “Railroad Town”. Hinton had residents as early as 1778. In 1880 there were 1000 people living in Hinton. By 1925 it had increased to 8,800. Today, roughly 2,556 people call Hinton home. They are proud preservationists. The town is being restored and brought to the 21^st century while keeping its history. We loved the historic churches, theater and enjoyed a wonderful pet friendly lunch at a sidewalk table from The Market on Courthouse Square. The median income is a tad over the US average at a bit above $32k, the median home cost is about $72k… but, wait for it! …the cost of living is almost 30% lower than the country’s average. Not a bad place to hang your hat!

Leaving Hinton to head north, retracing the way we came (only option : ) we headed to Grandview next, another out and back. The Tunnel Trail allowed us to view fabulous boulders and many well-placed flat stone stairs; The Main Overlook and the 1/3-mile wooded walk to North Overlook did not disappoint!

Fun note: We saw the same family of four at Grandview as we did along yesterday’s adventures; today at Sandstone Falls; and at Hinton’s The Market. Another “small world” happening.

Our last stop was Thurmond Historic District. We decided not to do the out and back to Glade Creek. If we had a bit more time we would have loved the drive and hiking options along the river as “advertised” in the Park’s brochures, but it was already after 4:30pm and we still had about a 45-minute drive to Thurmond, yup, an out and back, as well as any time we wished to spend there. Good thing we are on Eastern Time and the sun stays up until after 8:30PM.

The once booming coal shipment railroad town of Thurmond, WV used to have 15 passenger and roughly 3 coal trains, a day, in the early 1900’s! Thurmond became “the” place to be, as you can see from the photos that we took and that were taken back then, the now “ghost town” , population roughly 3, is still a railroad and coal transfer location but only a couple times a week and no place to sleep, eat or do your banking any more. The post office closed in 1995.

Before saying good-bye to this beautifully wooded, roaring river park, we wanted to see the 1977 built New River Bridge one more time from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. We are so glad we did! The partially clouded river and the bridge’s metal trusses were magnificent in the morning fog.

Tomorrow we head to Lancaster County to spend a night in Amish country Pennsylvania. We will post that adventure on this website under “Roaming Rangeley”.

… Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life… John Muir