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.
Cranberry Wilderness
47,815 acres of second-growth northern hardwood and red spruce on the high plateau — the largest wilderness in West Virginia. Trails are unblazed by design, junctions are unsigned, and the Cranberry and Williams rivers cut through it. Black bear density here is among the highest in the state.
Know before you go
- Carry map, compass and the skills to use them — this is not a signed trail system
- Bear canisters or proper hangs are strongly advised
- The Cranberry River road corridor gives easier access to the fishing
- Six trailheads: Big Beechy, North South–East and Forks of Cranberry off the Highland Scenic Highway, North South–West by Cranberry Campground, and Three Forks and County Line on Forest Road 86
- Route 150 is not plowed in winter, which closes the highway trailheads for months
- Groups are capped at ten and the trails are maintained for foot travel only
- Middle Fork Trail is 9 miles and North Fork Trail 7.5, the two longest lines through it
What you can do here
More than 70 miles of maintained trail cross 47,815 acres with no blazes and no signs at junctions, and that is a design decision rather than neglect. Middle Fork at 9 miles and North Fork at 7.5 are the two longest lines through it. Groups are capped at ten, and bear numbers here justify a canister or a serious hang.
Trails here
Local organizations
Six trailheads serve the area: Big Beechy, North South-East and Forks of Cranberry off the Highland Scenic Highway, North South-West by Cranberry Campground, and Three Forks and County Line on Forest Road 86. Route 150 goes unplowed in winter, closing the highway trailheads for months. Carry map and compass regardless of how short the day is.
Trails here
Local organizations
The Cranberry and Williams rivers run through this ground, and the Cranberry River road corridor is the access that does not require a backcountry approach. Everything else means walking unblazed trail with a rod. Trails are maintained for foot travel only, so build the day around distance you can cover under your own power.
Local organizations
Hunting here means foot travel: no vehicles, no mechanized access, and trails deliberately left unmarked at the junctions. Black bear density is among the highest in the state across 47,815 acres of second-growth hardwood and red spruce. Route 150 is not plowed, so late-season access shifts to the Forest Road 86 trailheads.
Local organizations
Hunting across West Virginia →High-plateau red spruce and northern hardwood is the habitat that carries breeders at the southern edge of their range, and here it runs unbroken across 47,815 acres. Reaching it means unblazed trail and your own navigation. The Highland Scenic Highway trailheads give the shortest approaches, but Route 150 shuts them for months each winter.
Camping is dispersed and unsupported — no numbered sites, and no signed junctions to steer you back out in the morning. A bear canister or a properly executed hang is strongly advised given how many bears use this plateau. Keep the party to ten or fewer, and choose a camp off the map rather than by looking for a used one.
Local organizations
Primitive & Dispersed Camping across West Virginia →Second-growth northern hardwood and red spruce spread across 47,815 acres is itself the subject: the largest wilderness in West Virginia, left to recover on its own terms. Bear sign is common. Whatever you go looking for you find by navigating for yourself, since the trails carry no blazes and the junctions no signs.
Trails here
Local organizations
Nature Observation across West Virginia →Guides, gear and lodging near Cranberry Wilderness
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.