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.
Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge
Twenty-two islands and several mainland tracts scattered along nearly 400 river miles of the Ohio, protecting some of the last relatively undisturbed island habitat on the river — critical for freshwater mussels, migratory birds and river-bottom forest. Most islands are open to day use and reachable only by boat.
Know before you go
- Boat access only for most islands; day use only, no camping
- Middle Island at St. Marys is reachable by bridge
- Barge traffic on the main channel is serious — stay to the sides
What you can do here
Most of the twenty-two islands can only be reached by boat, which makes a paddle craft the key to the refuge rather than one option among several. Barge traffic on the main channel is serious — stay to the sides and cross deliberately. Day use only and no camping, so plan a round trip inside daylight — Middle Island at St. Marys, reached by bridge, is the exception.
Island habitat strung along nearly 400 river miles is the whole point of this refuge: river-bottom forest that migrating birds use as a corridor through open country. May is the peak. Most islands take a boat, but Middle Island at St. Marys is reachable by bridge and needs no crossing; day use only, so build the trip around daylight.
What is protected here is some of the last relatively undisturbed island habitat on the Ohio — freshwater mussels under the surface, migratory birds and river-bottom forest above it. Reaching most of it requires a boat, and the barge traffic in the main channel deserves real respect on the way over. Middle Island is the walk-in alternative at St. Marys.
Twenty-two islands scattered down roughly 400 river miles give you back channels, island tips and slack water off the main channel to work. Barges run the middle, so fish the sides. Species and limits are not listed here; WVDNR regulations cover the Ohio. Day use only means no overnight camp on the islands, whatever the bite is doing at dusk.
An open boat works here if you choose the day: this is big water with commercial traffic, and wakes and barge wash are the hazard rather than rapids. Keep off the main channel and use the back sides of the islands. Day use only, no camping, and Middle Island at St. Marys can be scouted on foot first, since a bridge reaches it.
Freshwater mussels are a large part of why this refuge exists, and they are less something you watch than something you learn to read from the river above them. River-bottom forest on the islands is the other half. Most of it needs a boat to reach; Middle Island does not. Day use only, so plan the looking around daylight.
Guides, gear and lodging near Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Mid-Ohio Valley
North Bend Rail Trail
Seventy-two miles on the old Baltimore & Ohio grade from Wolf Summit to Parkersburg, passing through more than ten tunnels and over dozens of bridges — the longest tunnel run of any rail-trail in the region and part of the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail.
North Bend State Park
A 1,405-acre park on a horseshoe bend of the North Fork of the Hughes River, with a lodge, cabins, campgrounds, a 305-acre lake nearby and direct access to the North Bend Rail Trail.
Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park
An island in the Ohio River reached by sternwheeler from Parkersburg, holding a reconstructed 1800 Palladian mansion, horse-drawn wagon tours and quiet riverbank walking.
Mountwood Park
A county park outside Parkersburg with a 50-acre lake and one of the better mountain bike trail networks in the western half of the state, plus camping, disc golf and the site of the old Volcano oil town.
Hughes River
Three forks — North, South and Middle — draining a landscape of narrow ridges and small farms in Ritchie and Wirt counties, giving quiet Class I canoe water and good smallmouth fishing with almost no other boats.
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.