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.
Prickett's Fort State Park
A reconstructed 1774 frontier refuge fort at the confluence of Prickett's Creek and the Monongahela River, with living-history interpretation, a boat launch and a trailhead on the Mon River Rail-Trail system.
Know before you go
- Trailhead and parking for the southern end of the Mon River Rail-Trail
- Boat launch onto the Monongahela
- Living-history programming runs seasonally
What you can do here
This is the trailhead and parking for the southern end of the Mon River Rail-Trail system, so a ride or walk north starts from the fort's lot. A reconstructed 1774 fort at the confluence of Prickett's Creek and the Monongahela is a better than average place to start from. Living-history programming runs seasonally if you want something waiting at the end.
Local organizations
A boat launch here puts you on the Monongahela, which is pooled and commercially navigable through this stretch — flat water, no rapids, and barge traffic to stay well clear of. Prickett's Creek enters at the fort. Without a second vehicle this is out-and-back paddling from the ramp rather than a shuttle run.
The boat launch onto the Monongahela is the main asset here — big-river water of the sort that holds catfish and walleye, with a public way onto it. Bank fishing is limited to what the 188-acre park fronts. WVDNR licensing applies; check current regulations for the Monongahela before you fish it.
The Mon River Rail-Trail leaves from the parking lot here, flat and car-free, and that is the kind of surface long mileage gets run on. Starting at the southern end means you pick a distance and turn around at it. Living-history programming runs seasonally, so the lot can be busy on event days.
A launch onto the Monongahela puts you on a commercially navigable river, so expect barge traffic and read the navigation rules before you go. Registration, ramps and rules are administered through the WVDNR boating program. The ramp sits at the confluence with Prickett's Creek, below the reconstructed fort.
Guides, gear and lodging near Prickett's Fort State Park
Place-level placement for operators within range of this trailhead, put-in or crag.
List your business hereNearby in the Mountaineer Country
Coopers Rock State Forest
A 12,747-acre state forest above the Cheat River Canyon.
Cheat Canyon
One of the classic big-water runs of the East: roughly 11 miles of Class IV–V through a remote gorge below Albright, with named rapids including Big Nasty, Coliseum and Pete Morgan.
Mon River Rail-Trail System
About 48 miles of connected crushed-limestone rail-trail through Morgantown: the Caperton Trail along the riverfront downtown, the Mon River Trail running north to the Pennsylvania line and south toward Prickett's Fort, and the Deckers Creek Trail climbing 19 miles east to Reedsville.
Mountaineer Trail Network Recreation Area
Purpose-built modern singletrack in Preston County, the anchor project of a regional effort to link northern West Virginia into a single mountain bike destination.
Big Bear Lake Trail Center
A long-established private trail center in Preston County with dozens of miles of cross-country singletrack and doubletrack around a lake, plus camping.
Cathedral State Park
133 acres of virgin eastern hemlock, the last substantial stand of old-growth mixed forest remaining in West Virginia.
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.