Following our visit to Harpers Ferry, our West Virginia road trip led us to the United States’s newest national park, New River Gorge. As our fifth national park, it was the first where an incredible piece of engineering had such a huge impact on the surrounding landscape.

A little background, we planned a four day weekend including Harpers Ferry, New River Gorge and Coopers Rock State Park. Unfortunately, this park ended up being our last stop as our plans the next day were a complete wash due to it storming all day. We ended up just heading directly home instead of trying to fit in one more hike.

For our time at New River Gorge, we were limited to only one day, but we had a full day of adventure planned. One of the experiences, in particular, is something you truly have to do yourself.

Below, we’ll go into detail about how we spent our only day in the park: what hikes we did and any other activities. We limited ourselves to the northern section to not waste any time driving from place to place.

Now let’s get started!

Finally becoming recognized as a national park in 2021, New River Gorge has two main attractions: the New River Gorge Bridge and the New River.

Let’s start with the bridge. I know it sounds crazy that a national park main attraction would be a manmade object, but it truly is incredible what this piece of archictecture has meant for the area since its completion in 1977.

The New River Gorge Bridge, perhaps the main site to see in this park, stands 876 feet tall, is the third highest bridge in the country and is the longest steel bridge in the western hemisphere.

Prior to it’s construction, driving from one side of the gorge to the other would take upwards of 40 minutes. You’d have to drive down a narrow road to the river, cross the bridge that’s down there and then head back up the other side. Following it’s completion, that same drive became less than a minute. Now talk about impressive!

Obviously, this construction was an extremely important part of West Virginia history. To commemorate this achievement, Bridge Day is held every third saturday of October. During this celebration, there are all kinds of activities going on such as base jumping and rappelling. It’s also the only day during the year the bridge is closed to cars and is open to pedestrians to walk across.

Going back to where I said there is one activity you’ll want to experience for youself, well it involves the bridge. I will go into more detail below but the Bridge Walk is without a doubt something you should do unless you’re deathly afraid of heights. When researching this park, this caught our attention immediately and we knew we had to do it.

Below the bridge is the New River flowing south-to-north through North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. It’s one of the oldest rivers in the United States and is also believed to be one of the oldest in the world. The national park portion of the river includes 53 miles.

This has become one of the most well-known destinations for white-water rafting as there are Class I-V rapids. The Lower Gorge is known for having the more intense (Class III-V) rapids.

Need-to-know Information

There are none! This park is completely free to enter. Other activities such as the Bridge Walk or if you use a guide for rafting do cost money though.

Since we drove down from NJ, we didn’t have to look into flights, but if you do, here are some of your options:

• Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW) – Beckley, WV
• West Virginia International Yeager Airport (CRW) – Charleston, WV
• Greenbrier Valley Airport (LWB) – Lewisburg, WV
• Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA) – Roanoke, VA

If you’re planning to hike or do anything else near the bridge, Fayetteville is the perfect place to stay. You’ll have a small downtown area with restaurants and you’ll also be pretty much as close to the park as you can get without being in it. We like the budget hotels whenever possible (i.e. decent reviews) so we stayed at the Quality Inn in town. We have nothing to complain about during our night there.

Other possible options include Lansing, which is also extremely close to the park, and Beckley, which is a larger town a little further from the entrance.

There are four visitor centers located at different points along the river. From north to south, here they are:

• Canyon Rim
• Thurmond Depot
• Grandview
• Sandstone

The Canyon Rim Visitor Center is the most popular of the four. This is where all of our hikes and other activities were based out of.

If you’re interested in learning about the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and the coal industry, definitely make time to go to the Thurmond Depot as there is a historic town to explore.

To explore the southern parts of the park, head down to the Grandview and Sandstone visitor centers.

Things to do

With limited time, we started our day early with a couple of the more popular trails: Long Point and Endless Wall.

Around 9am, we started with the Long Point Trail. This is only 3 miles long with barely any elevation gain so the hike itself is pretty easy. There was also a pretty big parking lot, so I don’t think that would really be an issue. When we got there, there were only a few other cars. Dogs are also allowed as well as bikes, but bikes can only go to a certain point.

The hike isn’t strenuous at all so you’ll really just be enjoying a nice walk through the forest until you get to the incredible view of the bridge and gorge.

If you’re looking for an easy hike that offers a nice overview of what the park offers as well as one of the park’s best views, start with the Long Point Trail.

Immediately following Long Point, we made our way over to the Endless Wall Trailhead. This one is a little longer at just over 5 miles with slightly more elevation gain, but I would still consider pretty easy.

Between the two trails, this was probably our favorite as you’ll be hiking through the forest, but along the cliff edge. There are amazing views of the gorge, bridge and rafters all along the trail with plenty of opportunities for a photo. Also, another cool feature is getting to watch all of the rock climbers making there way up the side of the wall. That’s not something we’ve ever considered doing but it was definitely fun to watch!

Finally, because it was a little later in the morning, there were definitely more people on this trail. Parking for this one was a little trickier as the lot was full when we got there. We ended up parking along Lansing-Edmond Road and then walking over to the trail from there. So just pay attention to traffic and be careful.

I’ve mentioned this a few times above so let’s finally dive in. Following our morning and early afternoon of hiking, we made our way over to the start of the Bridge Walk.

Now yes, if you think the bridge walk is just walking across the bridge, you’re technically correct. This one, though, is a little different. Instead of a sidewalk, think catwalk. That’s right, beneath the road, there is a catwalk spanning the entire length of the bridge for you to walk across. And yes, for those afraid of heights, it is completely safe as you’ll be harnessed in the entire time. It might be tough at first but trust me, it’s worth it.

Besides the fact that this is possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience (I don’t really know how many bridges around the world offer this), you’ll take in views of the gorge from a completely different perspective, over 800 feet above the water.

According to the website, it looks like tickets go for $75 per person, which sounds about like the price I remember paying. The walk across is about 1.5 miles and the entire excursion takes about 3 hours. When you’re up there, you’ll have the chance to watch white-water rafters go by and learn about the history of the bridge.

Probably my favorite part was when we were about half-way, the guide told everyone to take a seat on the catwalk and let our feet hang over the edge. Just letting your feet dangle 800 feet above ground felt so unnatural but relaxing at the same time. Taking in all of the beauty of the surrounding area makes you forget all about any fears you might have.

If you’re going to New River Gorge, I highly recommend you plan some time around doing the bridge walk as you really will never forget it.

After our Bridge Walk experience, we moved on to the last major item we had planned for the day. That would be the Fayette Station Road scenic drive.

Prior to the construction of the bridge, this was the only way to cross the gorge. Now considered a scenic drive, it used to be so much more important as it was a requirement to drive to get where you needed to go. Nowadays, use the bridge and you’ll be across in 60 seconds or less.

The road is only 8 miles long so it’s not one that is high mileage. It’s narrow and winds through the forest and there will most likely be other cars along the way so traffic might move slowly. Fayette Station Road also gives access to popular hiking trails such as the Kaymoor Trail as well as access to the river.

Given that we were done hiking for the day at this point, we skipped the Kaymoor Mines and opted instead to hang out by the river for a little while. Aside from dipping our feet in the water, relaxing and cooling off, the area by the river gives the perfect underneath view of the bridge. Our day literally revolved around this bridge as we had a different view of it on our hikes, on the bridge walk and from the river.

It was a busy day for us so we thought this was the perfect way to end it before grabbing dinner and calling it a night.

Area Map

Below is a map of relevant information such as visitor centers, nearby airports, popular trailheads, places to stay and Fayette Station Road.

Closing thoughts

West Virginia was on our bucket list for a little while when we finally decided to make the trip. Aside from the weather the last day, nothing about it disappointed, especially not New River Gorge National Park. Researching this place was one thing but actually experiencing it, well, is just something you’ll have to do for yourself. We only saw one part of the park but there is so much to do depending on what you’re interested in. Hiking, rafting, rock-climbing, scenic driving and the awesome Bridge Walk are more than enough to keep anyone busy.

Fun fact – I bought one of those Comfort Colors shirts you can get at the gift shops in national parks and let me just say it’s one of the most popular shirts I own. It’s a purple, long-sleeve tee that always gets compliments whenever I wear it, so that’s pretty cool!

With that being said, go visit New River Gorge. You won’t regret it!