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.
Almost Heaven Swings
Where the Greenbrier River Trail begins
Most outdoor things to do in Lewisburg, WV, start at Caldwell, just east of town, where the North Caldwell trailhead sits at mile 3 of the Greenbrier River Trail. The trail runs 78 miles from here to Cass on a former Chesapeake & Ohio logging grade, following the river the entire way, and the grade never exceeds about one percent. The surface is quarter-inch limestone crusher run, with some coarser sections remaining, so a gravel bike is happier on it than a road bike with narrow tires. West Virginia State Parks gives the southern end at 1,696 feet, and from Cass south the whole thing runs very slightly downhill.
You do not have to ride far to get the character of it. Primitive campsites with privies sit every few miles along the corridor, and the two tunnels are up-trail — Droop Mountain Tunnel, 402 feet, built in 1900, at mile 30.9, and Sharps Tunnel, 511 feet, 1899, at mile 65.2. The bridge count depends on which official page you read: the trail site counts 37 and the state park page says 35, and both are agency figures. Shuttle services operate out of Lewisburg and Caldwell, and the Mountain Transit Authority asks for a day's notice. Cell service is absent for long stretches, so settle the pickup before you start pedaling.
Kate's Mountain and Greenbrier State Forest
Greenbrier State Forest covers 5,130 acres just outside White Sulphur Springs, with direct access from I-64, and it adjoins the Monongahela National Forest — which means the trails climbing Kate's Mountain out of the forest run into much larger country behind them. The forest has cabins, a campground and a swimming pool, so it works as a base as easily as a day trip. The climb up Kate's Mountain is the reason hikers come: it gains real elevation off the valley floor, and the ridge holds rare shale-barren plant communities, the kind of dry, thin-soiled slope where plants grow that you will not find in the hardwood cove a hundred feet below.
The state forest is also hunting land, which changes how you plan an autumn visit. Hunting seasons overlap the best hiking weather here, and blaze orange is the answer on any wildlife management area or forest where seasons are open. The shale barrens are also the best reason near Lewisburg to go out to look at plants rather than to cover ground, and they reward a slow walk on a dry slope in late spring. Because the forest sits against the national forest boundary, a map is worth carrying even on a short day — the marked forest trails and the federal ground behind them are not signed to the same standard.
Blue Bend, on Anthony Creek
Blue Bend is the swimming hole locals send you to. The Civilian Conservation Corps built it on Anthony Creek in the 1930s — a deep green pool below a stone-walled beach, inside the Monongahela National Forest, 8 miles north of White Sulphur Springs on Route 92 and then 4 miles west on Route 16. The water is cold well into summer, which is the point in August and the problem in June. The recreation area is open late March into November, per the Forest Service, so the season is longer than a swimming hole's reputation suggests — the loop trail above it is worth the drive in October.
The campground is one loop of 23 sites, mostly nonelectric, at $16 a night or $20 with electric. Facilities change with the season: flush toilets and showers in summer, vault toilets in spring and fall, and no potable water at any time of year, so bring what you plan to drink. That last detail catches people who assume a developed Forest Service campground has a spigot. With 23 sites in a single loop and a swimming hole this well known, summer weekends are the hardest time to arrive without a plan, and the nonelectric majority means an RV that needs a hookup has few options here.
Above the swimming area, the Blue Bend Loop is Trail 614 — five miles with three overlooks and a trail shelter, and real climbing rather than a stroll around the pool. It connects to the Anthony Creek Trail, and the corridor runs toward the Greenbrier River Trail near Anthony, which is how people put a hike and a rail-trail day together. The loop is closed to saddle, pack and draft animals, and the shelter on it is somewhere to wait out a thunderstorm, not somewhere to plan a night. Do the climb first and the swim afterward — the pool is cold enough to end a hiking day rather than start one.
Tubing and swimming the river below town
The Greenbrier below Caldwell is the local summer float: gravel bars, swimming holes and easy current, Class I, June through August, with WVDNR-published access points and mileages the whole way to Ronceverte. There is no commercial tube shuttle on that reach, so you need two cars or a bike stashed on the rail-trail — the practical advantage of a river with a rail-trail along it is that your shuttle can be a bicycle. The Greenbrier here is wide, shallow and warm, and the limestone that keeps it clear leaves gravel bars firm enough to walk when the current quits. Nothing on this reach is technical, which is why level, not difficulty, decides the day.
If you want an outfitted float instead, the run with a tubing operation on it is Fort Spring to Alderson, 2.5 miles and two to three hours of Class I water through farmland and limestone bluffs, run by Greenbrier River Campground, with a minimum of 7 years, 50 pounds and 4 feet. Late summer means walking the shallows, so check the gauge for minimum floatable flow before you drive. The standing cautions apply on every reach: check levels after rain, because clear water can turn dangerous fast, never jump into water you have not checked from the bank, and remember that many swimming holes here sit on private land.
Things to do in Lewisburg, WV, when the weather turns
The karst gives you a rain plan. Lost World Caverns, just outside town, is a commercial show cave entered by a long stairway into a single enormous chamber 120 feet below the surface, holding the 28-foot Snowy Chandelier stalactite; the self-guided walking tour needs no experience, and the cave holds around 52°F year-round. Organ Cave, also in Greenbrier County, runs walking tours with no crawling through a system with more than forty miles of mapped passage and 37 surviving Civil War saltpeter hoppers. Both also offer wild tours that require booking and a change of clothes — a different day out, not a rainy afternoon.
Heat is the other reason to change plans, and the answers are the cold water and the shade. Anthony Creek at Blue Bend stays cold through the summer, the state forest pool is the low-effort version, and the rail-trail corridor is shaded and level enough that an early start beats the afternoon. The crusher-run surface drains and rides well in light rain, which is more than you can say for the dirt climbs on the ridges. The other option in a heat wave is to move the day to its edges — the valley cools overnight, and the Kate's Mountain climbs are far better early than at midday.
When to go, and what the agencies warn about
Nothing here is a summer-only destination except the tubing. The rail-trail is usable year-round, the show caves hold their temperature in any month, and hardwood color in October makes the corridor and the Kate's Mountain climbs the busiest they get. Spring melt and heavy rain raise the river and put the float reaches out of shape for days, while late summer drops them low enough to scrape. The Forest Service window at Blue Bend — late March into November — is the tightest calendar constraint here, worth checking before a shoulder-season drive.
Two warnings are worth repeating because they come from the managing agencies. The state park planning material for the river is blunt that you should not assume every trail milepost is a launch; the named canoe access near town is at North Caldwell, mile 3, across US 60 from the Caldwell boat launch, with the next one up at Renick, mile 24.5. And on the trail itself, cell service is absent for long stretches, so anyone riding beyond the first few miles out of Caldwell needs water, a patch kit and a plan that does not depend on a phone.
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