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.
Canaan Valley Resort State Park
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.
Know before you go
- The only state park in West Virginia with a downhill ski area
- Nordic trails connect toward the wildlife refuge
- Lodge and cabins book out for winter holiday weeks
What you can do here
Eight hundred and fifty feet of vertical off the valley floor, and the only lift-served downhill skiing inside a West Virginia state park. The lifts run December through March. Lodge rooms and cabins sell out for the winter holiday weeks, so reserve early or plan on driving in for the day.
Local organizations
Riders use the same lifts and the same 850 feet of vertical as the skiers here. The park publishes no terrain park details, so if features matter to you, call the resort before you commit to a day. The window is December through March, the same as the ski season.
Local organizations
Nordic trails leave the resort and connect toward the national wildlife refuge next door, which puts a lot of flat valley-floor terrain within reach of one base. The park publishes no trail mileage. Check conditions before driving up: this is a December-through-March activity and it depends entirely on snow.
Local organizations
Beginners do well because the valley floor is flat and the Nordic trails toward the refuge take snowshoes without any special skill. Nothing in the park record sets aside dedicated snowshoe mileage, so ask at the lodge which trails they prefer you use when the snow is deep. December through March.
Local organizations
Snow tubing is run as part of the resort operation rather than as an informal hill. Hours, pricing and any height limits are not published in this record, so confirm them with the resort the week you come. The tubing window is shorter than the ski season, December through February.
Local organizations
Once the snow is off, the 6,015 acres here walk in every season. The trails share ground with the ski and Nordic terrain and with the valley floor beside the national wildlife refuge, which means level walking as much as climbing. No mileage is published, so ask the park office what is signed and open.
Local organizations
March through November the park's trails carry bikes, and the pitch of a mountain built for skiing is what puts the riding in the intermediate-to-advanced range. This record publishes no bike mileage and does not say whether the lifts run in summer. Ask the park which trails are open to bikes.
Local organizations
The park sits on the valley floor beside the national wildlife refuge, and the Nordic trails run toward refuge land, so one base covers two kinds of ground. May is the peak month. Winter guests staying at the lodge can work the same trails on skis or snowshoes.
Local organizations
Birding across West Virginia →April through October is the camping window. This record names a lodge and cabins but publishes no campground or campsite count, and it is the winter holiday weeks that it says book out, which tells you little about summer. Call the park to confirm what camping it operates before planning around it.
Guides, gear and lodging near Canaan Valley Resort State Park
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Potomac Highlands
Dolly Sods Wilderness
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.
Bear Rocks Preserve
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.
Spruce Knob
At 4,863 feet, the highest point in West Virginia and the high point of the entire Allegheny range.
Seneca Rocks
A 900-foot fin of near-vertical Tuscarora quartzite standing above the North Fork of the South Branch — the most recognizable rock formation in the eastern United States and the only true summit in the East that can only be reached by technical climbing.
Seneca Creek Backcountry
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.
Blackwater Falls State Park
A 57-foot falls where the Blackwater River drops into an eight-mile canyon, its water stained amber by hemlock and spruce tannins.
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.