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.
Blue Bend Recreation Area
A CCC-built swimming area on Anthony Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, with a deep green pool below a stone-walled beach, a campground and a loop trail up onto the ridge. One of the best-known natural swimming spots in the state.
Know before you go
- Water is cold well into summer
- The Blue Bend Loop is a solid 5-mile hike with real climbing
- Connects toward the Greenbrier River Trail near Anthony
- 23 campsites in one loop, mostly nonelectric; $16 a night, $20 with electric
- Flush toilets and showers in summer, vault toilets spring and fall, and no potable water
- Open late March into November, per the Forest Service
- The Blue Bend Loop is Trail 614, five miles with three overlooks and a trail shelter
What you can do here
The pool below the stone-walled beach on Anthony Creek is deep and green, and the CCC masonry from the 1930s still frames it. Water stays cold well into summer, which is the point in August and a shock in June. Flush toilets and showers run in summer, but there is no potable water at any time — bring your own.
Twenty-three sites in a single loop, mostly nonelectric, at $16 a night or $20 with electric. Flush toilets and showers in summer give way to vault toilets in spring and fall, and no potable water is available in any season. The Forest Service opens the area late March into November.
The Blue Bend Loop is Trail 614: five miles climbing off the creek onto the ridge, with three overlooks and a trail shelter along the way. The climbing is real, not a stroll up from the swimming area. Trails also connect toward the Greenbrier River Trail near Anthony if you want to link something longer.
Local organizations
Anthony Creek runs through the recreation area, and the water is cold enough that swimmers complain about it into July. The record names no stocked species and no special regulations for this stretch, so check current WVDNR rules before you rig up. Access is easiest around the day-use area, with more water upstream and down from the campground loop.
Local organizations
Guides, gear and lodging near Blue Bend Recreation Area
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Greenbrier Valley
Greenbrier River Trail
Seventy-eight miles from Cass to Caldwell on a former Chesapeake & Ohio logging grade, crossing 35 bridges by the state park's count and passing through 2 tunnels, following the Greenbrier River the entire way.
Watoga State Park
West Virginia's largest state park at over 10,100 acres, built largely by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Beartown State Park
A half-mile boardwalk through a formation of large Droop Sandstone blocks separated by deep crevasses, some of which hold ice into early summer.
Cranberry Glades Botanical Area
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.
Falls of Hills Creek
Three waterfalls in three-quarters of a mile, dropping 25, 45 and 63 feet — the last is the second-highest waterfall in West Virginia.
Highland Scenic Highway
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.
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.