Outdoor activities in West Virginia
Fifty-two activities, grouped into twelve categories. Each page lists the season, difficulty range, the regions where the activity is practiced, the locations associated with it, and the organizations that manage access or publish conditions.
Whitewater Rafting
West Virginia is the commercial rafting capital of the eastern United States.
Whitewater Kayaking
Private boating in West Virginia centers on rain-fed and snowmelt-fed runs: the Cheat Canyon, the Blackwater, the Meadow, the Elk and numerous steep creeks in the Highlands.
Recreational Kayaking
The majority of paddling in West Virginia takes place on flat or easy moving water rather than whitewater.
Canoeing
The Cacapon, Greenbrier, Hughes and South Branch are classic open-boat rivers — clear, warm, shallow and slow enough to fish from.
Stand-Up Paddleboarding
Summersville Lake, Cheat Lake, Stonewall Jackson, Sutton and the calm pools of the New and Greenbrier are the state's SUP water.
Tubing
Warm, shallow summer floats on the Greenbrier, Cacapon, Shenandoah, Potomac and the gentler stretches of the Cheat and Tygart.
Flatwater Paddling
Corps of Engineers reservoirs — Summersville, Sutton, Burnsville, Stonewall Jackson, Beech Fork, East Lynn — plus Cheat Lake and the pooled sections of the Ohio, Kanawha and Monongahela.
Water Trails
Water trail development has expanded significantly over the past decade.
Boating & Motorboating
Ramps, navigation rules, registration and public water access are administered through the WVDNR boating program.
Sailing
A small but real scene on the larger reservoirs — Summersville, Stonewall Jackson and Cheat Lake host the state's dinghy and small-keelboat sailing.
Sport Climbing
The New River Gorge is the anchor: hard, technical, sharply featured Nuttall sandstone with a national reputation for steep, powerful lines.
Traditional Climbing
Seneca Rocks is the East's most recognizable trad crag — a fin of Tuscarora quartzite standing nearly 900 feet above the North Fork, with multi-pitch routes and a genuine summit you can only reach by climbing.
Bouldering
Coopers Rock State Forest above the Cheat Canyon is the state's best-known boulder field, with a dense concentration of sandstone problems in mature forest.
Via Ferrata
NROCKS at Nelson Rocks operates one of the original American via ferratas — a guided cable-and-rung route across twin quartzite fins with a suspension bridge between them.
Hiking
More than a million acres of public land, a national forest, five National Park Service units and 35-plus state parks and forests.
Backpacking
Dolly Sods, Otter Creek, Cranberry, Roaring Plains and Laurel Fork are the wilderness areas that define West Virginia backpacking.
Trail Running
West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners is the statewide organization — races, group runs, trail resources and stewardship projects.
Road Running
Rail-trails are the state's road-running infrastructure: flat, car-free, well-surfaced and long.
Mountain Biking
Most established mountain bike trail in West Virginia is natural-surface and technical, following old logging and game trails over rock and root at steep grades.
Gravel Biking
The Monongahela National Forest road system and the county gravel network across the Allegheny front provide thousands of miles of unpaved riding with very low traffic volume.
Rail Trails
West Virginia's rail-trail inventory is one of the best per capita in the country.
Downhill Skiing
Snowshoe Mountain is the largest ski resort in the mid-Atlantic and the only one with a genuine summit village.
Snowboarding
All three West Virginia downhill areas allow snowboarding, with terrain parks at Snowshoe and Timberline.
Cross-Country Skiing
White Grass Ski Touring Center in Canaan Valley is the heart of eastern backcountry Nordic — a groomed and ungroomed network on the flank of Cabin Mountain with a legendary lodge culture around it.
Snowshoeing
The lowest-barrier winter activity in the state.
Sledding & Tubing Hills
Blackwater Falls State Park operates the longest sledding magic-carpet run in the region, and Canaan Valley Resort runs a snow-tubing park.
Fishing
Trout in the cold mountain water, smallmouth in the warm rivers, largemouth and muskie in the reservoirs, and walleye and catfish on the big rivers.
Fly Fishing
Limestone spring creeks in the east, freestone mountain streams in the highlands, and outstanding smallmouth water on the Greenbrier, South Branch, Cacapon and New.
Kayak Fishing
A fast-growing discipline in West Virginia, with the B.A.S.S.
Hunting
Whitetail deer, black bear, wild turkey, small game and waterfowl across a very large public land base — the Monongahela National Forest plus more than 80 WVDNR wildlife management areas.
Wildlife Viewing
Black bear, elk reintroduced in the southern coalfields, river otter, beaver, bobcat and one of the densest whitetail populations in the region.
Birding
The high-elevation spruce and northern hardwood forests support breeding populations of species at or near the southern edge of their range, including Cerulean Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Hermit Thrush and Northern Saw-whet Owl.
Outdoor Photography
Common subjects include valley fog, the tannin-stained waterfalls of the Blackwater and Cranberry drainages, hardwood color that moves from the highest ridges to the valleys over roughly six weeks, and night sky photography inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, where restricted radio transmission coincides with very low light pollution.
Nature Observation
Cranberry Glades preserves sphagnum bog communities isolated since the last glaciation, including carnivorous sundew and pitcher plants.
Caving
Greenbrier, Monroe and Pocahontas counties sit on some of the most significant karst in the eastern United States, with cave systems running to dozens of mapped miles each.
Horseback Riding
Extensive equestrian trail mileage in the Monongahela National Forest and at several state parks and forests, with camping designed for horse trailers.
ATV & UTV Riding
The Hatfield-McCoy Trails are the reason people trailer machines to West Virginia from a dozen states.
Dirt Biking
Single-track motorcycle terrain within the Hatfield-McCoy system and on designated Monongahela National Forest routes.
Off-Roading & 4x4
Designated routes within the Hatfield-McCoy system accommodate full-size vehicles on select trails, and forest service roads across the Monongahela open a large amount of legal backcountry driving and dispersed camping access.
Camping
Thirty-five state parks and forests, national forest campgrounds, Corps of Engineers lakeside sites, and five National Park Service units.
Primitive & Dispersed Camping
Dispersed camping is permitted across most of the Monongahela National Forest, which is unusual for an eastern national forest.
RV Camping
Full-hookup sites at most state parks and at Corps of Engineers lakes.
Swimming Holes
River pools, plunge pools below waterfalls and clear lake coves are used heavily through July and August.
Disc Golf
Courses in state parks and municipal parks across the state, with several installed at state parks in the past decade.
Geocaching
West Virginia State Parks runs an organized geocaching program alongside the global Geocaching.com network, which is a low-effort way to see corners of parks most visitors miss.
Orienteering
Map-and-compass navigation, taught and practiced through Orienteering USA clubs regionally.
Accessible Recreation
Rail-trails have gentle grades, firm surfaces and long uninterrupted mileage, which makes them the most accessible outdoor option in the state.
Adaptive Recreation
Adaptive skiing, paddling and cycling programming is available regionally, coordinated through Move United's affiliate network and several West Virginia resorts and outfitters.
Outdoor Education
Adventure WV and the WVU Outdoor Recreation Center run programs, courses and trips; the WVU Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative studies the industry itself.
Trail & River Stewardship
Almost every trail and river resource in West Virginia is maintained by a volunteer organization.
Golf
West Virginia has a deeper golf inventory than its population suggests, largely because of resort development.
Category sponsorship available
Own the top slot on a single activity category — climbing, paddling, motorized — with a persistent placement above the resource list.
See placementsEvery organization we link to: local tourism offices, the state and federal agencies that manage the land, the nonprofits and clubs that keep access open, and the universities doing the research.
West Virginia has roughly 1.5 million acres of public land and a handful of places that carry almost all of the attention. The consequence is that a great deal of very good ground sits nearly empty, usually for one of three reasons: nobody has heard of it, the road in is gated or rough, or it is undeveloped and has nothing to advertise. Those are the places below — of them across regions.