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.
Organ Cave
One of the longest caves in the United States, with more than forty miles of mapped passage, and a national historic landmark for its Civil War saltpeter mining works — over thirty original hoppers survive underground. Commercial tours access a fraction; the rest is serious caving.
Know before you go
- Standard tours are walking tours with no crawling
- Wild tours require booking and appropriate gear
- One of the largest caves in the eastern US by surveyed length
What you can do here
More than forty miles of mapped passage make this one of the largest caves in the eastern US by surveyed length, and the Civil War saltpeter works — 37 original hoppers still underground — earned it national historic landmark status. Standard tours walk, with no crawling. Wild tours require booking and appropriate gear, and even those reach a fraction of the system.
Local organizations
Guides, gear and lodging near Organ Cave
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.