New River Gorge, WV (Sept 2023)

Photo Album

Thursday (14th)

Because we’re diehard Southwest Airlines addicts right now and are proficient users of the Companion Pass (Southwest’s buy one get one free program) we thought it would be a good idea to fly into Pittsburgh instead of the DC area because it is closer.  But it’s still 3.5 hours away, so when our flight landed at 830 this still meant we couldn’t get to our hotel until after midnight. That’s how the trip started…

I guess a little backstory is needed, while I was at my previous company one of my coworkers (shout out to Jim Wetzel), who was originally from the midwest was telling me about this awesome river in West Virginia called the Gauley.  Apparently it is one of the best whitewater rafting rivers in the world, and since that conversation and others with friend’s who actually grew up a few hours from this river (talking about you Melanie) this river/area had been on our radar.

Friday (15th)

After our late night we were up for breakfast before 8 so we could be a be at the boat meeting point at 830.  Our boat operator runs one of the largest resorts in the area with a water park, river rafting, ropes course and much much more. After our briefing it was to the bus with the other 4 boats worth of people who would be rafting on the river with us.

Since this was our first rafting trip since the Grand Canyon and first one with paddles since 2012, we decided it might be safer to take the trip on the Lower Gauley river.  Now this is still a mighty section of river with five class 5 rapids and many others that can wreck an out of position raft. All in all it was a great day and only one of our boat mates fell out of the boat (Erik), even more funny that it wasn’t an epic rapid but simply a rock that the boat hit, stopped and momentum just took the boat out from under him.

The Crew (L-R) Me, Rebe, Melanie, Erik, Aimel, Yeli and Terry

The Crew battling the Gauley

The Crew mid rapid

After the river we had dinner on site of the resort, in an effort to watch the video that was captured of our day, which only Rebe’s aunt Aimel went to see but didn’t quite see because we were still eating when it started (videos are posted in the photo album). 

To finish the night we stopped at the Conchos Overlook to take in a view of the New River and the train tracks running alongside. 

Conchos Overlook

Saturday (16th)

We all met at 815am for a hearty breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World, something new to us and we thought it was IHOP like and it was probably closer to an upscale McDonald’s.  Either way it was filling and good enough, it was also the time we said goodbye to our friend’s Erik and Melanie who had come over to hang with us from the DC area. 

Since we had something planned for the northern section of the park on Sunday, we headed south today down to the Sandstone region of the park.  First was the Sandstone Visitor’s Center where we watched a park video and picked up a few knick knacks, maps and filled up on water. 

The ranger informed us of a talk going on at the Trump-Lily farm, this was a true subsistence farm formerly owned by a family named Trump (no relation I think to the more famous Trump) and then finally sold to the Lily family in 1912. On the farm the family had animals such as pigs, sheep and cows, a barn for spring water storage, fields for gardens and many trees for fruit. 

We left the farm and drove slightly down the road from Hinton, WV down to the main attraction on the New River to the Sandstone Falls.  This is a large water fall that runs all the way across the river and can be seen from many vantage points. We also ate lunch at this location. 

We next headed to the Grandview area of the park for the “Grand View” and a very cool hike down the Castle Rock trail which had some really cool rock walls. We were making our way to the Turkey Spur Overlook but since it was along a road, we headed back to the car to save ourselves a little time.  

Dinner was at the Freefolk Brewery where we had some nice gyros and decent beer. 

After dropping Terry off at the hotel we headed back out to check out some sunset views of the New River Gorge Bridge, though we had driven across it a few times you really can’t see the design of the bridge from the road surface. We also drove down to the river for some underneath views of the bridge. 

Sunday (17th)

When the NPS (National Park Service) announced the addition of the latest National Park, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, I was taken aback by this little known park and my main question was why?  I mean, it appeared that the main emphasis of the park was the big bridge and of course that’s not what National Parks are known for.  But the New River has a rich history and is one of the oldest rivers in the world and given the ties to coal country it has a rich human history too.

We started our day with a visit to the bridge with the purpose of doing a bridge walk, not across the top of the bridge, which you are not allowed to walk across, but on the catwalk underneath the bridge.  Our guide gave us the safety talk, tethered us in, and then we started walking.  He of course gave us the history of the bridge and how this large bridge really changed the lives of the people in the area.  The New River Gorge has been called the Grand Canyon of the East (don’t know if I agree with such a name) and the bridge really connected the area and state, what is now a 45 second drive used to take 45 minutes due to the windy road that went down to the river, across a single lane bridge and then back up the other side of the gorge. The bridge is the third tallest in the US and the largest arch bridge in the western hemisphere.

The bridge is near the Canyon Rim Visitor’s Center, we stopped in to hear the ranger give us a history of coal mining in the area and how horrible the conditions for mining were and how the company trapped the miners by owning everything in the town and paying them in scrip, or company cash.  We also watched a video while in the Visitor’s Center. 

As you can tell by the images above the weather was not as nice on this day, so we went back to the hotel to regroup, have lunch and catch a quick nap.  After the nap, we headed over to the Long Point Trail to hike out to Long Point, this is a ridge that reaches out into the gorge and has good views of the bridge. When we started the trail it wasn’t raining, but after a quarter mile of walking it started raining and didn’t let up until we returned to the car.  We all were donning our rain gear so we were all prepared for the wet.

Long Point in the fog and rain

We then followed a short tour provided by the NPS that discussed the history of the area and it led us down the same road we had taken the night before into the depths of the gorge.  Since it was light out, we spent a little more time at the bottom of the gorge and along the river just admiring the gorge, rapids and bridges. 

Back to the hotel for a quick shower and get into a set of dry clothes before dinner in downtown Fayetteville, and finished the night off at The Stash for some ice cream.

Monday (18th)

Our flight was not until 515pm so we had a little time after the 3.5 hour drive up to Pittsburgh, so we were torn on what to do.  See a tiny sliver of Pittsburgh or detour on the way up and see another Frank Lloyd Wright house.  If you didn’t read the Phoenix entry, we had visited his campus outside Phoenix, Tailspin where he and his proteges spent the winters.  The house/complex was an architectural marvel and was impressive to Rebe and myself, sadly we didn’t visit the Lloyd house but we’ll save that for another visit to the area. Instead we just rode in to Pittsburgh and parked to ride one of the cities Inclines (fernicular), in particular the one at Duquesne Station.  It is a historic line with history back to the coal days and leads up Mt Washington and gives spectacular views of the 3 rivers of Pittsburgh and the city.  

Downtown Pittsburgh

We had lunch at the top before heading to the airport.