New River Gorge

Fayetteville

The primary service town for the New River Gorge, built around a walkable courthouse square with climbing shops, rafting outfitters, restaurants and breweries.

Summersville

Located between Summersville Lake and the Gauley River put-ins, with chain lodging, groceries and services along US 19.

Hinton

A railroad town on the New River below Bluestone Dam, with a preserved brick downtown and a stop on Amtrak's Cardinal route.

Gauley Season Weekend

Six weekends a year, Summersville Dam opens and the Gauley carries the most concentrated whitewater in the eastern United States.

New River Gorge Climbing Trip

Sharp Nuttall sandstone, stiff grades and the best autumn friction in the East.

New River Gorge Bridge

A 3,030-foot steel arch carrying US 19 some 876 feet above the New River — for decades the longest single-span arch bridge in the world, and still the image most people carry of West Virginia.

Endless Wall Trail

A 2.4-mile point-to-point trail along the gorge rim through hemlock and rhododendron, crossing Fern Creek on a footbridge and reaching Diamond Point, an exposed rock outcrop with a view up the gorge to the bridge.

Long Point Trail

About 3.2 miles round trip on mostly level old roadbed to a rock promontory below the rim, which provides the most-photographed view of the New River Gorge Bridge.

Grandview

1,400 feet above a horseshoe bend in the New, with a seven-mile view up the gorge — the widest perspective anywhere in the park.

Sandstone Falls

The largest waterfall on the New River — not tall, but 1,500 feet wide, spilling across the full breadth of the river between islands at the point where the gorge begins to open.

Kaymoor Miners Trail

A steep descent from the gorge rim to the ruins of the Kaymoor One coal mine and processing plant, including 821 wooden steps down the former haulage incline.

Nuttallburg

An abandoned coal town at the bottom of the gorge with the most complete surviving coal conveyor and tipple complex in the country — a 1,385-foot inclined conveyor running straight up the hillside, once operated by Henry Ford.

Gauley River

The most celebrated whitewater in the eastern United States.

Lower New River

The commercial rafting heart of West Virginia: Class III–IV big-volume water through the deepest part of the gorge, with named rapids including Surprise, Upper and Lower Railroad, Double Z, Greyhound and Fayette Station under the bridge.

Summersville Lake

West Virginia's largest lake and by a wide margin its clearest — 2,700 acres of blue-green water in a sandstone basin, popular for scuba diving, paddleboarding and boating.

Beauty Mountain

A long band of high-quality Nuttall sandstone on the gorge rim above Fayetteville, with a concentration of classic moderate trad and sport routes and one of the best views from any belay in the East.

Meadow River

The Meadow is two things at once: an exceptional and demanding whitewater run, and one of the most significant new climbing developments in the eastern United States over the past decade, with hundreds of routes established on clean sandstone in a deep, quiet gorge.

Arrowhead Trails

Purpose-built flow and cross-country mountain bike singletrack inside the national park near Fayetteville, built by the Boy Scouts and open to the public — a deliberate contrast to West Virginia's traditionally rugged riding, with bermed corners, rollers and progressive difficulty.

Babcock State Park

Home of the Glade Creek Grist Mill, the most photographed building in West Virginia — a working reconstruction assembled from parts of three historic mills, sitting on a boulder-strewn creek.

Pipestem Resort State Park

A full resort park perched above the Bluestone Canyon, with an aerial tram descending 1,100 feet to a lodge on the river — the only state park tram in West Virginia.

Hawks Nest State Park

A rim-top lodge above the Mill Creek arm of the New River Gorge with an aerial tram to a marina on the water.

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve

Designated a national park and preserve in 2020, protecting roughly 53 miles of the New River where it has cut about 1,000 feet through Nuttall sandstone.

Bluestone National Scenic River

Ten miles of protected river in a deep, wooded gorge between Bluestone Lake and Pipestem — the least-visited National Park Service unit in West Virginia and the quietest.

Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park

A Civil War battlefield on a bluff above the Gauley River with overlooks into the canyon and trails dropping toward the water.

Bluestone State Park

On the shore of Bluestone Lake, the third-largest body of water in West Virginia, at the point where the Bluestone River meets the New.

Camp Creek State Park & Forest

An unusual pairing of a small developed park inside a much larger state forest in Mercer County, with two waterfalls on Camp Creek, mountain bike and equestrian trails, and camping.

Pinnacle Rock State Park

A small day-use park in Mercer County built around a jagged sandstone fin standing above the highway, with a stairway to the top and a view over the southern coalfields.

Little Beaver State Park

A park just off I-64 near Beckley with an 18-acre lake, a seasonal campground, an extensive trail network used for running and mountain biking, and easy access from the interstate.

Pipestem Resort Golf

An 18-hole course plus a par-3 layout at Pipestem Resort State Park above the Bluestone Canyon, with lodge accommodation on site and a par-3 course that suits beginners and short visits.

Bluestone Turnpike Trail

Eight and a half miles along the Bluestone River between Pipestem Resort State Park and Bluestone State Park, following the line of an old turnpike through the gorge.