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.
Snowshoe Mountain
The largest ski resort in the mid-Atlantic, built upside-down: the village sits at 4,848 feet on the summit ridge of Cheat Mountain and you ski down from it. Three ski areas in one — the main basin, Silver Creek with the terrain park and night skiing, and the Western Territory with Cupp Run, a 1,500-vertical-foot expert descent designed with Jean-Claude Killy. In summer it operates a lift-served bike park that has hosted UCI World Cup downhill racing.
Know before you go
- Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge in the Western Territory are the expert runs
- Silver Creek holds the park and night skiing
- The bike park is one of the best on the East Coast, with shuttle and lift laps
- Weather on the summit is severe — the village sits in cloud often
What you can do here
You ski down from the village rather than up to it, since the base sits at 4,848 feet on the summit ridge of Cheat Mountain. Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge in the Western Territory hold the expert terrain, with 1,500 vertical feet on Cupp. Around 250 inches of snow falls in an average year.
Local organizations
Silver Creek is the side to know: it holds the terrain park and the night skiing, separate from the main basin. The Western Territory is where the pitch lives, Cupp Run dropping 1,500 vertical feet. Summit weather is severe and the village spends real time inside a cloud, so pack a lens for flat light.
Local organizations
Summer turns the mountain into a lift-served bike park that has hosted UCI World Cup downhill racing, and it stands among the best on the East Coast, with both shuttle and lift laps. The 4,848-foot summit that makes the skiing work gives the descents their length. Weather up top is a factor even in July.
Local organizations
Roughly 250 inches of snow a year at 4,848 feet is the raw material, but nothing is published here about a dedicated sledding or tubing hill at the resort. Check what is actually operating for the season before building a day around it. The region's established tubing parks are run by other highland resorts.
Local organizations
In the snow-free months this is walkable ground on the summit ridge of Cheat Mountain, and the village puts you at 4,848 feet without climbing to it. No trail mileage is published. Lift-served bike traffic uses part of the mountain through the summer, so ask which routes are open to foot travel first.
Local organizations
Sitting at 4,848 feet on a ridge means every ride off the mountain ends with a long climb back up to the village. No specific gravel routes or forest road connections are published for the property. Ask at the resort, and plan for summit weather that can change while you are still down low.
Local organizations
As the largest ski resort in the mid-Atlantic, with a summit village and three ski areas under one operation, Snowshoe has the scale that adaptive programming usually requires. Specific equipment, lessons and availability are not published here. Contact the resort well in advance, and ask about village lodging, which puts you on snow without a drive.
Guides, gear and lodging near Snowshoe Mountain
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.