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.
Coal River Water Trail
An organized water trail on the Big Coal, Little Coal and main-stem Coal rivers south of Charleston, with maintained access points, mapped mileages and signage — the product of sustained work by the Coal River Group to turn a working-class industrial river back into a recreation asset. Warm, slow water with good smallmouth and catfish.
Know before you go
- Coal River Group publishes the most current access maps
- Meander through Tornado and St. Albans is the most-used section
- Levels drop in late summer but most sections stay floatable
What you can do here
Eighty-eight miles of mapped and signed water trail on the Big Coal, Little Coal and main-stem Coal south of Charleston, built by the Coal River Group on a river that had been written off as industrial. Class I throughout, with maintained access points. Pull the group's current access maps before you go; the meander through Tornado and St. Albans is the most-used section.
Local organizations
Water Trails across West Virginia →Class I water, warm and slow, with maintained put-ins and mapped mileages between them — about as forgiving as moving water gets for a first kayak. The Tornado to St. Albans meander is the busiest section and a reasonable place to start. Levels drop in late summer, though most sections stay floatable.
Local organizations
Slow warm water at Class I is open-boat country, and mapped access points let you choose a distance instead of committing to a whole day. Smallmouth and catfish make fishing from the boat realistic. Use the Coal River Group's maps for current put-ins and takeouts, since they publish the most up-to-date version.
Local organizations
Canoeing across West Virginia →Smallmouth and catfish in warm, slow water with maintained access along 88 miles is the combination that makes a river worth fishing from a boat you can carry. Class I means you can watch the water instead of the paddling. Late-summer levels drop, so check conditions with the Coal River Group before hauling a loaded boat down.
Local organizations
Kayak Fishing across West Virginia →Good smallmouth and catfish hold in this warm, slow water, which is the recreation payoff of the Coal River Group's long effort to bring a working industrial river back. Maintained access points give bank and boat anglers places to get in. WVDNR licensing and regulations apply, and the group's maps show where the public access actually is.
Warm, slow, Class I water is the profile a float wants, and June through August is when the levels and the air temperature line up. Set a put-in and takeout from the mapped access points so the shuttle is short. Levels drop in late summer, which can mean walking shallow stretches.
Floats here
This is river flatwater rather than reservoir flatwater: Class I current, warm water and mapped mileage between maintained access points south of Charleston. The meander through Tornado and St. Albans carries the most traffic. Pick your distance off the Coal River Group's maps, and expect lower water late in summer without losing the float.
The water trail exists because the Coal River Group built it — access points, mapped mileages and signage on 88 miles of river. That work is ongoing and it is volunteer work. Contact the group about cleanups, access maintenance and signage; they also publish the access maps that everyone else on this river uses.
Local organizations
Trail & River Stewardship across West Virginia →Guides, gear and lodging near Coal River Water Trail
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Metro Valley
Kanawha State Forest
9,300 acres of steep, wooded hollow just fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston, with more than 25 miles of trails, a well-known mountain bike network, a swimming pool, campground and some of the best spring warbler birding in the state.
Beech Fork State Park
A 3,981-acre park around a 720-acre Corps reservoir near Huntington, with one of the largest campgrounds in the state park system, good bass fishing and easy trails.
Chief Logan State Park
A 4,000-acre park in Logan County with a wildlife exhibit, trails through reclaimed coal country and an outdoor amphitheatre.
East Lynn Lake
A 1,005-acre Corps reservoir in Wayne County with a strong bass and crappie fishery, a large wildlife management area around it and very little traffic.
Kanawha Falls
A wide ledge falls at Glen Ferris where the Gauley and New join to form the Kanawha — a well-known bank fishing spot for hybrid striped bass, walleye and catfish, with roadside access and a historic inn across the highway.
Tu-Endie-Wei State Park
The smallest park in the system, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers in Point Pleasant, marking the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant.
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.