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. West Virginia holds a significant share of the global Cerulean Warbler breeding population. The Brooks Bird Club is the statewide birding organization, and WVDNR recommends it as the primary way to connect with other West Virginia birders.
West Virginia's high spruce forests hold breeding warblers that most eastern birders drive to Canada for. The state is one of the most important places in the country for Cerulean Warbler.
Peak is roughly the second week of May through mid-June, and the best sites are all above 3,000 feet.
Cranberry Glades in late May. Boreal bog, spruce forest and an accessible boardwalk, with Northern Waterthrush, Hermit Thrush and Mourning Warbler in earshot.
Full guide to Cranberry Glades Botanical Area →Dolly Sods and the Canaan Valley refuge. Red Crossbill, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Golden-winged Warbler and a habitat mix found almost nowhere else this far south.
Full guide to Dolly Sods Wilderness →Kanawha State Forest in spring migration. Cerulean and Kentucky Warblers breed here, fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston.
Full guide to Kanawha State Forest →The Brooks Bird Club is the statewide organization and WVDNR recommends it directly. Relative to the quality of the habitat, West Virginia has a small active birding community, so many high-elevation sites are under-surveyed.
All terrain in West Virginia above 4,000 feet lies in this region, including Spruce Knob at 4,863 feet.
Ohio River islands and the North Bend Rail TrailThe Ohio River corridor and the counties inland from it.
Appalachian Trail, warm rivers, limestone streamsThe Appalachian Trail crosses the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and runs roughly 24 miles through this region.
Rail-trails, limestone caves, gentle river paddlingThe Greenbrier Valley sits on Greenbrier limestone, producing karst topography: sinkholes, springs, sinking streams and extensive cave systems, several with more than forty miles of surveyed passage.
1,400 feet above a horseshoe bend in the New, with a seven-mile view up the gorge — the widest perspective anywhere in the park.
The largest waterfall on the New River — not tall, but 1,500 feet wide, spilling across the full breadth of the river between islands at the point where the gorge begins to open.
A full resort park perched above the Bluestone Canyon, with an aerial tram descending 1,100 feet to a lodge on the river — the only state park tram in West Virginia.
Ten miles of protected river in a deep, wooded gorge between Bluestone Lake and Pipestem — the least-visited National Park Service unit in West Virginia and the quietest.
A Civil War battlefield on a bluff above the Gauley River with overlooks into the canyon and trails dropping toward the water.
West Virginia's largest state park at over 10,100 acres, built largely by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
The largest area of bogs in West Virginia — sphagnum and cranberry peat bogs holding plant communities left behind after the last glaciation, more typical of Canada than the mid-Atlantic, including carnivorous sundews and pitcher plants.
A 43-mile National Scenic Byway climbing over 4,500 feet across the Allegheny plateau between Richwood and US 219, with four major overlooks and access to Cranberry Glades, the Falls of Hills Creek and the Cranberry Wilderness.
47,815 acres of second-growth northern hardwood and red spruce on the high plateau — the largest wilderness in West Virginia.
West Virginia's oldest state forest, 11,684 acres along the Greenbrier River with rustic CCC cabins that have no electricity, a fire tower rentable as lodging, and a quiet trail network.
A small park in Monroe County built around a 144-acre lake with warm-water fishing for largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish, plus a swimming pool.
The site of the largest Civil War battle fought in West Virginia and the state's oldest state park, with a lookout tower over the Greenbrier Valley, short trails and a museum.
A 17,371-acre federally designated wilderness on a plateau largely above 4,000 feet, containing wind-flagged red spruce, heath barrens, sphagnum bog and exposed rock.
The northern edge of the Dolly Sods plateau, owned by The Nature Conservancy: bare Pottsville sandstone slabs, one-sided spruce sculpted by prevailing wind, and blueberry heath dropping east into the Allegheny Front with a 3,000-foot view over the Potomac Highlands.
At 4,863 feet, the highest point in West Virginia and the high point of the entire Allegheny range.
A network of trails below Spruce Knob following Seneca Creek through spruce and northern hardwood to a series of waterfalls, the largest around 20 feet.
The highest large valley east of the Mississippi, at about 3,200 feet — a 14-mile-long bowl of wetland, bog, beaver meadow and northern hardwood that behaves climatically like central Canada.
About 20,000 acres of dense second-growth forest in a bowl between Shavers Mountain and McGowan Mountain, drained by Otter Creek.
A 24-mile ridge trail along one of the driest mountains in the eastern United States, running through pine and oak with repeated Tuscarora quartzite outcrops looking down into Germany Valley and across at Seneca Rocks.
A steep, narrow limestone canyon where the South Branch of the Potomac cuts through Cave Mountain — excellent smallmouth fishing, quiet canoe water at the right levels, dispersed camping, caves in the walls and a nineteenth-century chapel at the upper end.
A six-mile gorge on the South Branch of the Potomac between Romney and Moorefield with no road access — reachable only by boat or by the Potomac Eagle excursion train that runs alongside it.
A 3,712-acre CCC-era park in Hardy County with cabins, stables and the Cranny Crow Overlook — a rock outcrop at 3,200 feet with a view said to reach into four states.
Two adjacent wilderness units, North and South, totaling around 12,000 acres along Laurel Fork — a beaver-worked stream valley with meadows, spruce and one of the quietest backpacking experiences in the state.
133 acres of virgin eastern hemlock, the last substantial stand of old-growth mixed forest remaining in West Virginia.
A 968-acre Corps reservoir on the Little Kanawha with the Bulltown Historic Area on its shore — Civil War earthworks, a preserved farmstead and a well-regarded campground.
6,000 acres on Cacapon Mountain near Berkeley Springs, with a lodge, a Robert Trent Jones golf course, a lake beach and a trail system climbing to the 2,300-foot ridge.
One of the finest gentle canoe rivers in the East — clear, shallow, warm and slow, winding through farmland and forest with reliable smallmouth fishing and easy multi-day trips.
Nearly 23,000 acres on Sleepy Creek Mountain — the largest WMA in the Eastern Panhandle, with a 205-acre lake, primitive camping, hunting, and a long ridge trail system.
An island in the Ohio River reached by sternwheeler from Parkersburg, holding a reconstructed 1800 Palladian mansion, horse-drawn wagon tours and quiet riverbank walking.
Twenty-two islands and several mainland tracts scattered along nearly 400 river miles of the Ohio, protecting some of the last relatively undisturbed island habitat on the river — critical for freshwater mussels, migratory birds and river-bottom forest.
Three forks — North, South and Middle — draining a landscape of narrow ridges and small farms in Ritchie and Wirt counties, giving quiet Class I canoe water and good smallmouth fishing with almost no other boats.
9,300 acres of steep, wooded hollow just fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston, with more than 25 miles of trails, a well-known mountain bike network, a swimming pool, campground and some of the best spring warbler birding in the state.
A 4,000-acre park in Logan County with a wildlife exhibit, trails through reclaimed coal country and an outdoor amphitheatre.
On the shore of Bluestone Lake, the third-largest body of water in West Virginia, at the point where the Bluestone River meets the New.
Deep in McDowell County, one of the most remote units in the system, with a small campground, a swimming pool and trails through steep hardwood in the heart of the southern coalfields.
A preserved nineteenth-century homestead in Harrison County with a museum, farm buildings, a swimming pool and quiet woodland trails.
The smallest park in the system, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers in Point Pleasant, marking the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant.
A large, quiet forest in Wayne County named for the four counties it borders, with CCC-built cabins, a campground and a fire tower.
Just outside White Sulphur Springs, adjoining the Monongahela National Forest, with cabins, a campground, a swimming pool and trails climbing Kate's Mountain.
An undeveloped forest adjoining Watoga State Park to the south, with no facilities and minimal trail marking.
The state's only resort park with lift-served downhill skiing, plus a lodge, cabins, a golf course, snow tubing and cross-country trails, sitting on the floor of Canaan Valley beside the national wildlife refuge.
A quiet 12,854-acre WMA in Mingo County built around a 29-acre lake, with primitive camping, warm-water fishing and public hunting in the southern coalfields.
The largest lake on the Monongahela National Forest, 156 acres at around 2,600 feet against the Virginia line, with two sand beaches — one on the mainland and one on an island reached by a footbridge.
A 43-acre cold-water lake ten miles from Richwood in the Monongahela National Forest, with a 33-unit campground on the shore and the Cranberry backcountry immediately behind it.
Eight and a half miles along the Bluestone River between Pipestem Resort State Park and Bluestone State Park, following the line of an old turnpike through the gorge.
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List your business hereGroups that handle access, maintenance, licensing and conditions data for this activity. Starred entries publish updates worth following.
Every 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.
