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.
Summit Lake
Local knowledge
A 43-acre cold-water lake ten miles from Richwood in the Monongahela National Forest, with a 33-unit campground on the shore and the Cranberry backcountry immediately behind it. Quiet, stocked, and the practical base for fishing the Cranberry and Williams rivers without driving the Highland Scenic Highway twice a day.
The practical base for fishing the Cranberry and Williams without driving the Highland Scenic Highway twice a day — a small campground right on the shore.
More places like thisKnow before you go
- Cold-water lake — the Forest Service stocks it and WVDNR lists the district's trout waters nearby
- Ten miles from Richwood, on the Gauley Ranger District
- Handy for the Cranberry Wilderness trailheads on Forest Road 86
What you can do here
A 43-acre cold-water lake that the Forest Service stocks, ten miles from Richwood on the Gauley Ranger District. It also works as a base for fishing the Cranberry and Williams rivers, which saves driving the Highland Scenic Highway twice in a day. WVDNR lists the district's trout waters nearby; check current regulations and stocking before you come.
Local organizations
Thirty-three sites on the shore of a 43-acre lake, with the Cranberry backcountry immediately behind them — a quiet base rather than a destination campground. Cranberry Wilderness trailheads on Forest Road 86 are close by, and Richwood is ten miles off for supplies. The season runs April through October.
43 acres is small water, an hour or two of shoreline rather than a day of it, but it is calm, cold and rarely busy, which suits a beginner or an evening lap after fishing. The campground sits on the shore, so you launch from where you sleep. April through October.
The hiking value here is mostly what sits behind the lake: the Cranberry backcountry, with Wilderness trailheads on Forest Road 86 a short drive off. Nothing is published about trails on the shore itself. Check with the Gauley Ranger District at Richwood for conditions before committing to a long day in the Wilderness.
Local organizations
Cold-water lake, shoreline and the Cranberry backcountry behind it put several habitats within a short walk of the campground, and May is the peak. Forest at this elevation in the Monongahela is the kind of ground that holds northern breeders at the southern edge of their range. No species list is published for the lake itself.
Thirty-three sites sit on the lake shore, but nothing is published about hookups or the length they will take, so confirm with the Gauley Ranger District before towing in. The approach is ten miles of mountain road from Richwood, which is the usual planning constraint on a big rig in this part of the state. April through October.
Guides, gear and lodging near Summit Lake
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.