The Best Swimming Holes in West Virginia

The clear water

Summersville Lake is the standout. Visibility there is unusual for the eastern United States, the shoreline is ringed with sandstone cliffs, and there are developed swimming areas as well as boat access. It doubles as a scuba destination, which tells you something about the clarity.

It is also the place cliff jumping happens in West Virginia, off overhanging rock with boats moored below. Worth being direct about this: it is not a supervised or formally sanctioned activity, depths and submerged hazards vary between spots, and the sensible approach is to go with people who know the specific location rather than the general reputation.

CCC-built swimming areas

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a remarkable number of West Virginia's swimming spots between 1933 and 1942, and many are still in use largely unchanged. Blue Bend, on Anthony Creek in the Greenbrier Valley, is the best of them — a stone-and-water arrangement in a bend of the creek, cold well into summer, and quiet.

Watoga, Babcock, Lost River, Cabwaylingo and Greenbrier State Forest all carry CCC-era infrastructure. Several have pools rather than natural swimming, which is worth checking before you drive; a pool is a fine thing on a hot day but it is not what most people picture.

River ledges and creek pools

Audra State Park on the Middle Fork is the north-central favorite: rock ledges, pools and a boardwalk running under a rock overhang at Alum Cave. Valley Falls, nearby on the Tygart, has similar ledge-and-pool character.

In the New River Gorge, the swimming is mostly river swimming and needs judgement about current. Sandstone Falls is a spectacle rather than a swimming spot. The gentler upper New around Hinton is better water for getting in.

Highland creeks — Anthony Creek, Seneca Creek, the Williams and the Cranberry — hold cold pools that stay genuinely cold through August. That is either the appeal or the problem depending on your tolerance.

Lake beaches

Several state parks have developed beaches, and they are the right answer with small children: shallow entry, supervision, facilities and no current. Tygart Lake, Stonewall Resort, Bluestone, Beech Fork, Tomlinson Run and Moncove Lake all have lake or pool swimming.

Specific rules — horsepower limits, no-wake zones, designated swim areas — vary and were not obtainable from a reliable central source at the time of writing for the Corps of Engineers lakes in particular. Read the posted signage at the ramp.

Being sensible about it

Two things account for most trouble. The first is current: West Virginia rivers look slower than they are, and WVDNR warns specifically about the New near Hinton and Sandstone. The second is jumping into water whose depth you have not checked, in a state where water levels move with rainfall and dam releases.

Glass is prohibited or discouraged almost everywhere. Water temperature in the highlands stays cold into July, and cold-water shock is a real hazard even in summer air temperatures.

Questions

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