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.
Elkins
The largest town in the Potomac Highlands and the location of Monongahela National Forest headquarters, where forest maps and current road and trail information are available. Elkins is the practical resupply point for trips into Otter Creek, Cheat Mountain, Laurel Fork and the Seneca Creek backcountry, with full groceries, gear and a hospital.
What's here
- Monongahela National Forest headquarters and maps
- Full resupply — groceries, gear, hospital
- Access to Otter Creek, Stuart Recreation Area and Shavers Fork
- Scenic railroad excursions
Lodging, food and gear in Elkins
Town-level listings for operators based here. Capped at four per basecamp page.
List your business hereWithin reach
Otter Creek Wilderness
About 20,000 acres of dense second-growth forest in a bowl between Shavers Mountain and McGowan Mountain, drained by Otter Creek.
Stuart Recreation Area
A CCC-built recreation area on the Shavers Fork near Elkins with a campground, picnic shelters and river access — the practical basecamp for the central Monongahela National Forest and the Otter Creek and Cheat Mountain country.
Kumbrabow State Forest
The highest state forest in West Virginia, 9,474 acres of red spruce and northern hardwood on Rich Mountain, with rustic cabins, native brook trout in Mill Creek and almost no one there.
Laurel Fork Wilderness
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.
North Fork Mountain Trail
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.
Best for
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.