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.
Know before you go
- The final scramble onto the point is short but exposed
- Best light is late afternoon with the bridge lit from the west
What you can do here
About 3.2 miles round trip on old roadbed, flat for most of the way, ending on a rock promontory below the rim. The payoff is the standard view of the New River Gorge Bridge. The last few feet onto the point are a short scramble and exposed, which is the part to take slowly, particularly with children.
Overlooks here
Local organizations
Mostly level roadbed over 3.2 miles round trip makes an easy out-and-back, with the caveat that the trail is heavily used and you will be sharing it. Turn around before the final scramble onto the point if you are moving fast, since it is short but exposed. Late afternoon brings both the crowds and the best light.
Overlooks here
Local organizations
The point holds the most-photographed view of the New River Gorge Bridge, and 3.2 miles of mostly flat roadbed is a modest price for it. Late afternoon is when the bridge is lit from the west. The final scramble onto the rock is exposed, so think about how much gear you want on your back.
Overlooks here
Local organizations
Outdoor Photography across West Virginia →Guides, gear and lodging near Long Point 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.
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.
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.