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 Mountain Backcountry
The plateau between Davis and Canaan Valley, from 3,100 to 4,145 feet, built around the eight-mile Plantation Trail with a dozen short connectors hanging off it. Rhododendron tunnels, spruce, blueberry heath and old logging grades, and the closest real backcountry walking to the Canaan Valley lodges. It is also the mountain-biking and cross-country ski network that White Grass and the Davis shops send people to.
Know before you go
- Plantation Trail is the spine; Mountainside, Railroad Grade and Lindy Run are the usual return legs
- Wet underfoot for most of the year — the plateau holds water
- Snow lies here when the valley floor is bare, which is why the ski touring is on this mountain
What you can do here
Hiking
Mountain Biking
Cross-Country Skiing
Snowshoeing
Backpacking
Primitive & Dispersed Camping
Trail Running
Guides, gear and lodging near Canaan Mountain Backcountry
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.