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.
Kanawha State Forest
9,300 acres of steep, wooded hollow just fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston, with more than 25 miles of trails, a well-known mountain bike network, a swimming pool, campground and some of the best spring warbler birding in the state. A remarkable amount of real backcountry for a city forest.
Know before you go
- Davis Creek and the ridge trails carry the best riding
- Spring migration here is exceptional — Cerulean and Kentucky warblers breed
- Hunting is permitted in season on much of the forest
- 9,300 acres, seven miles from downtown Charleston, with the bike network concentrated on Davis Creek and the ridges
- The forest publishes which trails are foot-only and which allow bikes; the two sets share junctions
- Spotted Salamander Trail is a quarter-mile wheelchair-accessible interpretive loop
- Overlook Rock, 1.5 miles, is the nearest named overlook to Charleston
What you can do here
Davis Creek and the ridge trails carry the best riding, which means climbing out of a steep hollow and working the tops. The forest publishes which trails are foot-only and which allow bikes, and the two sets share junctions, so read the map before you drop into anything. All of it sits fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston.
Trails here
Overlooks here
Steep wooded hollow, seven miles from downtown Charleston, across 9,300 acres. Overlook Rock, at 1.5 miles, is the nearest named overlook to the city and the standard short objective. Spotted Salamander Trail sits at the other end of the effort scale — a quarter-mile wheelchair-accessible interpretive loop. Foot-only and shared trails are marked on the forest map.
Trails here
Overlooks here
Local organizations
Spring migration here is exceptional, and Cerulean and Kentucky warblers breed in the forest — two birds that are work to find elsewhere. May is the peak. Stacking steep hollow and ridge inside one 9,300-acre block puts several habitat bands within a short walk of the road, which is why a half-day from Charleston pays off.
Overlooks here
A campground puts a night's sleep fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston with real backcountry out the tent door. The record gives no site count or hookup detail, so book through the state park system and ask. Note that hunting is permitted in season on much of the forest, which matters if you are camping in fall.
Overlooks here
Hollow-and-ridge terrain across 9,300 acres, seven miles from downtown Charleston, is the closest hard running ground to the city. Grades are the sustained kind rather than rolling, which is what puts this at an intermediate rating. Check the forest map for the foot-only trails, since the shared ones put you at junctions with bikes.
Trails here
Overlooks here
Local organizations
Hunting is permitted in season on much of the forest, which is unusual this close to a state capital. The season runs roughly September through February while the trails stay open to hikers, runners and riders — wear orange and know which drainage you are in. Licensing, seasons and bag limits come from WVDNR.
Overlooks here
Past the warblers, the point is that 9,300 acres of steep hardwood hollow sit fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston, with habitat stacked from creek bottom to ridge top. Spotted Salamander Trail, a quarter-mile wheelchair-accessible interpretive loop, is the easiest place to see that up close. Listed year-round, with spring the richest stretch.
Trails here
Overlooks here
This is not rail-trail running. The forest is steep wooded hollow, and paved mileage here means the forest road rather than a flat greenway, so plan on climbing whichever direction you turn. Seven miles from downtown Charleston makes it reachable on a weekday evening. Statewide, the Charleston greenway carries the flat car-free miles.
Overlooks here
Local organizations
Guides, gear and lodging near Kanawha State Forest
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Metro Valley
Coal River Water Trail
An organized water trail on the Big Coal, Little Coal and main-stem Coal rivers south of Charleston, with maintained access points, mapped mileages and signage — the product of sustained work by the Coal River Group to turn a working-class industrial river back into a recreation asset.
Beech Fork State Park
A 3,981-acre park around a 720-acre Corps reservoir near Huntington, with one of the largest campgrounds in the state park system, good bass fishing and easy trails.
Chief Logan State Park
A 4,000-acre park in Logan County with a wildlife exhibit, trails through reclaimed coal country and an outdoor amphitheatre.
East Lynn Lake
A 1,005-acre Corps reservoir in Wayne County with a strong bass and crappie fishery, a large wildlife management area around it and very little traffic.
Kanawha Falls
A wide ledge falls at Glen Ferris where the Gauley and New join to form the Kanawha — a well-known bank fishing spot for hybrid striped bass, walleye and catfish, with roadside access and a historic inn across the highway.
Tu-Endie-Wei State Park
The smallest park in the system, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers in Point Pleasant, marking the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant.
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.