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.
Green Bank Observatory
The world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, at the center of the National Radio Quiet Zone — a 13,000-square-mile area where radio transmissions are restricted by law. The practical outdoor consequence is that this is among the darkest and quietest country in the eastern United States, and your phone will not work.
Know before you go
- Exceptional astrophotography conditions — plan around the new moon
- Expect no cell service across much of Pocahontas County
- The science center and tours run daily in season
What you can do here
The National Radio Quiet Zone covers 13,000 square miles, and the side effect for a photographer is some of the darkest country in the eastern United States. Astrophotography conditions are exceptional; plan around the new moon. In daylight the 485-foot telescope is the subject, and the science center runs tours daily in season.
Dark sky status
Local organizations
Outdoor Photography across West Virginia →Restricting radio transmission across 13,000 square miles produces a quiet you notice within a minute of shutting the car door. Your phone will not work across much of Pocahontas County, which is the condition that makes sitting still here worth the drive. Stay into the dark if you can — the night sky is the same order of rare as the silence.
Dark sky status
Local organizations
Nature Observation across West Virginia →Guides, gear and lodging near Green Bank Observatory
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.