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.
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. The original spruce forest was logged and the remaining duff burned to bedrock in the early twentieth century, which is why much of the plateau remains open. The area was used as a live-fire artillery training range during World War II, and unexploded ordnance warnings are still posted at trailheads. Trails are unblazed and stream crossings are unbridged.
Know before you go
- Bear Rocks at sunrise is the classic photograph — arrive in the dark
- Navigation is required; trails are faint and junctions unsigned
- Red Creek runs tannin-brown and crossings can be impassable after rain
- Weather changes fast and hypothermia is a real risk in any month
- Camp only on durable surfaces — the bogs are fragile and slow to recover
- 47 miles of trail in all: Red Creek 6.4 miles, Blackbird Knob 4.7, Rohrbaugh 3.6
- There is no potable water anywhere in the wilderness — bring it or treat it
- Camping is prohibited within 300 feet of Forest Roads 19 and 75 except at Red Creek Campground
What you can do here
Forty-seven miles of unblazed trail sit on a plateau largely above 4,000 feet — Red Creek 6.4 miles, Blackbird Knob 4.7, Rohrbaugh 3.6. Junctions are unsigned and Red Creek crossings can be impassable after rain, so carry navigation and a bail-out plan. There is no potable water anywhere in the wilderness. Camp on durable surfaces; the bogs recover slowly.
Trails here
Local organizations
Day walking here needs map and compass. Trails are faint, unblazed and unsigned at junctions, and weather turns fast enough that hypothermia is a real risk in any month. Red Creek runs tannin-brown and its crossings are unbridged. What you get for the trouble is open heath barren, wind-flagged red spruce and exposed rock above 4,000 feet.
Trails here
Local organizations
Bear Rocks at sunrise is the picture, which means arriving in the dark and navigating faint, unblazed trail to be standing there when it happens. The open plateau — heath, sphagnum bog, wind-flagged spruce, bare rock — exists because the original forest was logged and the duff burned to bedrock. Dress for weather that changes fast at this elevation.
Local organizations
Red spruce, heath barren and sphagnum bog sit within one morning's walk of each other on a plateau above 4,000 feet, which is a lot of habitat change for the distance. No species list is published for this wilderness. Trails are unblazed, so a birder drifting off the line needs navigation as much as optics.
Local organizations
Birding across West Virginia →Camping is prohibited within 300 feet of Forest Roads 19 and 75, except at Red Creek Campground, so a dispersed night means walking in from the road. Pick durable surfaces — the bogs are fragile and slow to recover. There is no potable water anywhere in the wilderness; carry it or treat what Red Creek gives you.
Local organizations
Primitive & Dispersed Camping across West Virginia →Winter takes an already hard navigation problem and covers it: trails are unblazed year-round, and snow hides what little tread exists on an open plateau above 4,000 feet. Weather changes fast and hypothermia is a real risk in any month here. Carry map and compass, and be willing to turn around well short of the plan.
Trails here
Local organizations
The openness of this plateau is not original. Red spruce was logged off and the remaining duff burned to bedrock in the early twentieth century, and heath barren has held the ground since. Sphagnum bog, wind-flagged spruce and exposed rock above 4,000 feet all read as part of that record. Stay on durable surfaces; the bogs recover slowly.
Trails here
Local organizations
Unblazed trail and unsigned junctions make this honest navigation ground — the 47 miles of trail exist on paper, and finding them is the exercise. Red Creek crossings are unbridged and can be impassable after rain, which turns a route plan into a decision. Note the unexploded ordnance warnings posted at trailheads from the wilderness's World War II use as an artillery range.
Red Creek's 6.4 miles, Blackbird Knob's 4.7 and Rohrbaugh's 3.6 add up to real distance, but the tread is faint and the junctions unsigned, so this is running with a map in hand. Unbridged crossings can stop a route after rain. Carry water — there is none potable anywhere in the wilderness.
Trails here
Guides, gear and lodging near Dolly Sods Wilderness
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Potomac Highlands
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.
Canaan Valley
The highest large valley east of the Mississippi, at about 3,200 feet — a 14-mile-long bowl of wetland, bog, beaver meadow and northern hardwood that behaves climatically like central Canada.
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.