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.
Bluestone Turnpike Trail
Local knowledge
Eight and a half miles along the Bluestone River between Pipestem Resort State Park and Bluestone State Park, following the line of an old turnpike through the gorge. Rated easy to moderate, which for this part of the state means the walking is level and the effort is in getting down to it and back out: the connecting trails from the Pipestem rim drop 500 feet.
Rated easy to moderate, but the walking is level and the whole effort is the descent and the five hundred feet of climb back out if the tram is not running.
More places like thisKnow before you go
- Starts at the Farley Loop and River Trail junction inside Pipestem Resort State Park
- The tram from the Pipestem rim runs seasonally; walking out is 500 feet of climb
- Bluestone National Scenic River protects the corridor it follows
What you can do here
The trail runs 8.5 miles along the Bluestone River between Pipestem Resort and Bluestone State Park, on the line of an old turnpike. Rated easy to moderate, the walking itself is level; the effort is in the connectors, which drop 500 feet from the Pipestem rim. Start at the Farley Loop and River Trail junction and plan for the climb back out.
Local organizations
Point to point it is 8.5 miles between two state parks, inside a corridor protected as the Bluestone National Scenic River. That is short enough to walk in a day, so an overnight here is about the river rather than the mileage. Confirm with both parks where camping is permitted before you commit, and remember the 500-foot rim climb is easier with a light pack.
Every mile of this trail follows the Bluestone River, inside a corridor protected as a national scenic river. Nothing here is published about what is stocked or what runs, so check current WVDNR regulations for this stretch first. Access is on foot only: the trail is the way in, and the connectors from the Pipestem rim cost 500 feet each way.
Local organizations
Eight and a half miles of continuous river corridor inside a national scenic river gives you streamside habitat with no road running alongside it. May is the peak month statewide. Getting down from the Pipestem rim costs 500 feet of descent, so an early start is what puts you at river level during the first hours of song.
Level footing on the old turnpike grade makes this one of the more runnable long trails in the region, at 8.5 miles end to end. The catch is the connectors: 500 feet of climb back to the Pipestem rim if the seasonal tram is not running. Check the tram schedule before you plan a one-way run.
Local organizations
Protection as the Bluestone National Scenic River is why the gorge here stays undeveloped for 8.5 continuous miles. Following the old turnpike line keeps you at river level the whole way. Dropping the 500 feet in from the Pipestem rim takes you through the change from rim to river quickly enough to see it happen.
Local organizations
Guides, gear and lodging near Bluestone Turnpike Trail
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the New River Gorge
New River Gorge Bridge
A 3,030-foot steel arch carrying US 19 some 876 feet above the New River — for decades the longest single-span arch bridge in the world, and still the image most people carry of West Virginia.
Endless Wall Trail
A 2.4-mile point-to-point trail along the gorge rim through hemlock and rhododendron, crossing Fern Creek on a footbridge and reaching Diamond Point, an exposed rock outcrop with a view up the gorge to the bridge.
Long Point Trail
About 3.2 miles round trip on mostly level old roadbed to a rock promontory below the rim, which provides the most-photographed view of the New River Gorge Bridge.
Grandview
1,400 feet above a horseshoe bend in the New, with a seven-mile view up the gorge — the widest perspective anywhere in the park.
Sandstone Falls
The largest waterfall on the New River — not tall, but 1,500 feet wide, spilling across the full breadth of the river between islands at the point where the gorge begins to open.
Kaymoor Miners Trail
A steep descent from the gorge rim to the ruins of the Kaymoor One coal mine and processing plant, including 821 wooden steps down the former haulage incline.
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.