I hiked the 1-mile Kaymoor Miners Trail to see what's left of the coke ovens and processing plants. In addition to buildings, throughout the park you’ll find coal conveyors, mining headhouses and other historic structures. The depot also serves as a visitor center, where you will learn that after the mining industry slumped in the 1950s, the mines shut down and the town was abandoned. Start at the depot, where Amtrak’s Cardinal train still passes by the station three times each week in both directions. Thurmond, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and others popped up practically overnight among the coalfields and alongside the tracks of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.Ī post office, a bank and other restored buildings in Thurmond allowed my imagination to bring this once-flourishing coal town back to life. As far back as the late 1800s, dozens of such towns filled the coal-rich New River Gorge. To fully experience this national park, you'll want to visit the remains of once-booming mining towns in the area. This experience is not for the faint of heart, but if you can allow yourself to look down, you will be mesmerized by the rushing water. I also donned a harness provided by Bridge Walk for a guided tour along the catwalk, which runs 25 feet under the bridge. Of the many hikes I completed over three days - it's kind of my jam when I travel - this was easily my favorite. Hikers will find the 3-mile Long Point Trail also leads to stunningly beautiful views of the bridge. The drive is gorgeous, but you may want to pull over every 50 yards or so to take bridge photos from new vantage points. The journey features winding one- and two-way roads, including hairpin turns. For more views, I drove along Fayette Station Road, once the only way to cross the gorge. From there, people may descend 178 steps to a second overlook. Once completed, this single engineering project cut travel time between Lansing and Fayetteville - cities separated by the New River - from 40 minutes to less than one minute.Īn accessible boardwalk overlook at Canyon Rim Visitor Center in Lansing is the most popular way to soak up views of the bridge. Completed in 1977, at 3,030 feet the spectacular span is the longest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the third highest in the U.S. The bridge is impossible to miss, and it's also one of the most photographed places in the Mountain State. Sandstone Falls is beautiful, but for me, it can’t compare with the park's two focal points: the New River Gorge Bridge and what remains of the historic mines.
The largest waterfall on the New River, it plunges 10 to 25 feet and extends more than 1,500 feet across.
Because it was March, it was closed for the season, so I stretched my legs and motored south to Sandstone Falls. Four hours later, my first stop in the park was Sandstone Visitor Center, the southernmost of four visitor centers. I like to get an early start, so I was on the road by 6 a.m. I was eager to hit the road, listen to a radio station of my choosing and get the cancellation stamp for our 63rd national park in my coveted, timeworn National Parks Passport. Leaving behind my four children, two dogs and one husband - all of whom had been within arm’s reach for nearly a year due to the pandemic - I headed alone from my home near Washington, D.C., to the park for a much-needed escape, if only for a few days. Three restaurants on-site are open seasonally, and nearby Fayetteville has year-round dining options, including Tudor's Biscuit World for breakfast and Pies & Pints for artisanal pizza. I stayed in Lansing with Adventures on the Gorge (AOTG), which offers cabins of all sizes and styles, as well as a campground for tents and RVs. Though the park's lodging is limited to camping, surrounding towns offer motels, cabins and bed-and-breakfast inns. New River Gorge National Park is an easy weekend getaway from Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Charleston, West Virginia. The boundaries extend 53 miles from Hinton to Ansted, interweaving rugged natural beauty with a storied mining history. More than 70,000 acres of land in southern West Virginia on each side of one of the oldest rivers in the world - a rare north-flowing river to boot - make up the park. The landscape features sculpted canyons, beautiful waterfalls and a bridge, some 876 feet above the river, that captivates from every angle. national park, offers all those outdoor adventures and more. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, the newest U.S. The iconic bridge is stunning, and our newest national park offers much more.
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