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.
Tygart Lake State Park
A 1,750-acre reservoir behind a 1930s Corps of Engineers dam near Grafton, with a lodge, marina, scuba diving and steep wooded shoreline. The most developed flatwater recreation in the northern part of the state.
Know before you go
- Marina rents boats seasonally
- Walleye, bass and muskie fishery
- 1,750 acres, unlimited horsepower with no-wake zones, and a swimming area marked on the park map
- 36 campsites, 10 of them full hookup
- The marina rents pontoons and fishing boats and runs lake cruises
What you can do here
The lake holds 1,750 acres behind a dam completed in 1938, with steep wooded shoreline and no-wake zones marked on the park map. Horsepower is otherwise unlimited, so a paddler wants the marked zones and the protected corners rather than open water on a busy afternoon. The marina is the natural launch and rents boats seasonally.
Seventeen hundred and fifty acres with unlimited horsepower and no-wake zones marked on the park map make this the most developed flatwater in the northern part of the state. The marina rents pontoons and fishing boats and runs lake cruises. It sits behind a Corps dam finished in 1938, so check the pool level before you plan around a ramp.
Walleye, bass and muskie are the fishery, spread across 1,750 acres of steep-shored reservoir. The marina rents fishing boats seasonally if you did not trailer one. Fishing is a year-round activity but the marina is not, so a winter trip means your own boat or what you can reach from the bank.
Thirty-six sites, ten of them full hookup, at a state park with a lodge and marina on the same water. State park campgrounds book through the state park system rather than a federal one. Between the marina, the marked swimming area and the lake itself, you can stay here for days without moving the car.
Shoreline on this reservoir is steep and wooded, so trails climb — this is not lakeside strolling. The park is built around the water, with lodge, marina and swimming area, and no trail mileage is published. Ask at the lodge which trails are open and how far they actually run before you set out.
Local organizations
Steep wooded shoreline gives 1,750 acres plenty of sheltered corners, and the no-wake zones marked on the park map are where a board belongs. Horsepower is unlimited elsewhere, and boat wake is the hazard worth planning around. The marina rents pontoons and fishing boats; whether boards are among the rentals is worth a call.
At 1,750 acres this is one of the larger reservoirs in the northern part of the state, though the marina's published rentals are pontoons and fishing boats, with nothing said about sailboats or moorage. Mountain winds are fluky and thermally driven, which makes afternoons the working hours. Call the marina about launching and where a boat can be left.
Guides, gear and lodging near Tygart Lake 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.