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.
Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park
The site of the largest Civil War battle fought in West Virginia and the state's oldest state park, with a lookout tower over the Greenbrier Valley, short trails and a museum. Pairs naturally with Beartown next door.
Know before you go
- The tower view over the valley is the reason to stop
- Trails are short and easy — an hour covers most of it
What you can do here
Trails here are short and easy, and an hour covers most of them, so this is a stop rather than a destination day. The lookout tower over the Greenbrier Valley is the thing worth walking to. Beartown is next door if you want to make a half day of it.
Local organizations
The tower view over the Greenbrier Valley is the reason to stop, and it points at the kind of subject the region is known for: valley fog in the morning, hardwood color in the fall. Battlefield ground from 1863 and a park established in 1928 supply the rest. Everything is close to the parking area, so weather windows are easy to catch.
Dark sky status
Local organizations
Outdoor Photography across West Virginia →No bird list is published for this park, and the trails are short enough that an hour covers them. What you get is easy access to the ridge above the Greenbrier Valley, plus a tower that lifts you above ground level, which is useful in May when migration peaks. Treat it as a quick stop on a longer birding route.
Guides, gear and lodging near Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park
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.