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.
Endless Wall Trail
A 2.4-mile point-to-point trail along the gorge rim through hemlock and rhododendron, crossing Fern Creek on a footbridge and reaching Diamond Point, an exposed rock outcrop with a view up the gorge to the bridge. Below the trail is the Endless Wall itself, a continuous band of Nuttall sandstone holding a large concentration of established sport climbing routes.
Know before you go
- Park at Fern Creek and walk the road back, or set a shuttle to Nuttall
- Climber access ladders drop off the rim — stay back from unprotected edges
- Sunrise light hits the far wall; sunset backlights the bridge
What you can do here
Two and four-tenths miles point to point along the gorge rim, through hemlock and rhododendron, across Fern Creek on a footbridge, ending at Diamond Point with a view up the gorge to the bridge. Park at Fern Creek and walk the road back, or set a shuttle to Nuttall. Climber access ladders drop off the rim, so stay back from unprotected edges.
Local organizations
The wall below the trail is a continuous band of Nuttall sandstone holding a large concentration of established sport routes. Access is off the rim by ladders, which is also why the edges up top are dangerous for everyone else. The season runs roughly March through November, and this is not beginner rock.
Local organizations
Light does two different things here: sunrise hits the far wall, and sunset backlights the bridge. Most of the 2.4 miles run closed in through hemlock and rhododendron, so the outcrops are where the frames are, Diamond Point above all. The edges are exposed and unprotected — keep the tripod well back from them.
Local organizations
Outdoor Photography across West Virginia →At 2.4 miles point to point this is a short run on rim trail through hemlock and rhododendron, with a footbridge over Fern Creek partway. Double it out and back, or shuttle to Nuttall. The exposed rock at Diamond Point and the climber ladders dropping off the rim are reasons to ease off the pace rather than push it.
Local organizations
Guides, gear and lodging near Endless Wall Trail
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the New River Gorge
New River Gorge Bridge
A 3,030-foot steel arch carrying US 19 some 876 feet above the New River — for decades the longest single-span arch bridge in the world, and still the image most people carry of West Virginia.
Long Point Trail
About 3.2 miles round trip on mostly level old roadbed to a rock promontory below the rim, which provides the most-photographed view of the New River Gorge Bridge.
Grandview
1,400 feet above a horseshoe bend in the New, with a seven-mile view up the gorge — the widest perspective anywhere in the park.
Sandstone Falls
The largest waterfall on the New River — not tall, but 1,500 feet wide, spilling across the full breadth of the river between islands at the point where the gorge begins to open.
Kaymoor Miners Trail
A steep descent from the gorge rim to the ruins of the Kaymoor One coal mine and processing plant, including 821 wooden steps down the former haulage incline.
Nuttallburg
An abandoned coal town at the bottom of the gorge with the most complete surviving coal conveyor and tipple complex in the country — a 1,385-foot inclined conveyor running straight up the hillside, once operated by Henry Ford.
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.