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.
Laurel Fork Wilderness
Local knowledge
Two adjacent wilderness units, North and South, totaling around 12,000 acres along Laurel Fork — a beaver-worked stream valley with meadows, spruce and one of the quietest backpacking experiences in the state. Trails follow the valley bottom with repeated crossings.
Very low visitation even on holiday weekends. Beaver work floods sections of the valley-bottom trail, which is part of why it stays that way.
More places like thisKnow before you go
- Beaver activity regularly floods sections of trail
- Very low visitation even on holiday weekends
- Native and wild trout in Laurel Fork
- Forest Road 14 is the way in: US 33 and Middle Mountain from the north, WV 28 east of Bartow from the south
- Most trails follow old railroad grades, so the walking is gentler than the Sods
- Stock animals are prohibited at Laurel Fork Campground
What you can do here
Two units, North and South, total 11,839 acres with 18.5 miles of trail, most of it on old railroad grades along the valley bottom — gentler walking than the Sods. Repeated stream crossings and beaver flooding are the complications, not the climbing. Visitation stays very low even on holiday weekends. Forest Road 14 is the way in.
Local organizations
Laurel Fork holds native and wild trout, and the beaver meadows strung along it make the kind of slow, worked-over water they live in. Trails follow the valley bottom with repeated crossings, so walking and wading end up being the same activity. Beaver dams regularly flood sections of trail. Check WVDNR regulations for this water before you fish it.
Local organizations
Walking here follows the valley rather than climbing out of it: old railroad grades along Laurel Fork through beaver meadow and spruce, 18.5 miles of trail across the two units, with repeated stream crossings. The grades are gentle by Potomac Highlands standards. Get in on Forest Road 14 — US 33 and Middle Mountain from the north, WV 28 east of Bartow from the south.
Local organizations
Very low visitation, even on holiday weekends, is the argument for a night here. Beaver activity regularly floods trail sections, and that same water takes out much of the flat ground beside the stream, so scout a site before dark. Stock animals are prohibited at Laurel Fork Campground. Confirm dispersed camping rules with the Forest Service district office.
Local organizations
Primitive & Dispersed Camping across West Virginia →Beaver built the meadows that define this valley and still flood stretches of trail, so the animals' work is in front of you even when they are not. Native and wild trout hold in Laurel Fork. Low visitation across 11,839 acres means little pressure on anything here — move slowly along the valley bottom early or late.
Local organizations
Wildlife Viewing across West Virginia →The valley puts beaver meadow, spruce and an open stream corridor side by side across two wilderness units, which is a lot of edge in a short walk. No species list is published for Laurel Fork. Very low visitation means quiet, and 18.5 miles of valley-bottom trail let you cover ground slowly and listen.
Local organizations
Birding across West Virginia →Guides, gear and lodging near Laurel Fork Wilderness
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Potomac Highlands
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.
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.
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.