The Newest National Park: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve: Part One

 Our next stop on our trip to the Maritimes was Battle Run Corps of Engineers Campground near Summersville, West Virginia.. If you are following us on a map, you will see that we are not traveling very far in a day. From Stony Fork Campground we traveled 111 miles to get to Battle Run. We learned early in our travels that there is no need to rush from place to place. We chose Battle Run because it is the closest Corps of Engineer Campground to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. The only problem with some Corps campgrounds are the check-in times. This time was posted as 5 p.m.! Luckily for us, the sites are first come first serve until their official opening date later in May. We were able to get into a site around noon. We nabbed a great waterfront site.

While sitting at our table in Sol, we could watch the fishermen on the lake.

After getting settled, it was off to the post office to get a couple of packages. One was shipped USPS and one UPS. We thought the UPS package would be refused, but since we called ahead, they held it for us....only catch was we had to pay the postage that would have been charged if it had been sent USPS. Oh, well, it was something we needed so we paid the extra (even though USPS wouldn't accept it for mailing)! There was rain in the forecast for the afternoon so we drove around the area to get our bearings. North of town we found a tourist information center so we stopped for some brochures to plan the next week's adventures.

Checking the weather for our first full day in the area, we found there was a good chance of rain. We  decided that we would visit Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park which was only 3 miles from the campground. They had  a 2 mile loop trail around the perimeter of the park. It definitely looked like rain so we took our rain gear. At the beginning of Patterson Loop Trail, there were several overlooks where we could view the Gauley River.

 

 And yes, it did start raining after we viewed the last overlook. However, that didn't stop us and we continued on the trail.

After our hike, we went back to the campground. The rain cleared up and we drove to the winery north of town. Once off the main highway, we found ourselves on a very narrow two lane road that looked like a one lane road. Thank heavens it was a short drive to the winery. I tasted several wines and ended up with a cooking wine made from ramps (they taste like garlic and onion).

After we returned to the campground, we walked around the campsites in between rain showers.

The next day we went to another local hike--Long Point Trail--which overlooks Summersville Lake. It was a 3.9 mile trail that wound through the forest and ended up on rock outcroppings overlooking the lake.

Just before we reached the rocks, we walked through a tunnel of rhododendron.

We enjoyed the view from the rocks and even saw evidence that the rocks had been used for rock climbing...pitons hanging from the rocks.

The next day, Sunday, we decided it was time to drive the 15 miles to New River Gorge. We planned to hike, but changed our minds once at the visitor center. We took the 178 steps down the hill to view the New River Gorge Bridge. The bridge is the longest arch bridge in the western hemisphpere.

 We also discovered that there was a geocache Adventure Lab starting at the visitor center. So, we changed our minds about hiking and took the scenic drive instead. It was mostly a narrow one way drive, but in several places it turned into a narrow two way road.. At one stop we found a waterfall about 100 yards from the Kaymoor Mine Trailhead. We completed the Adventure Lab as we completed the drive.

Lunch time!  Time to visit  Freefolk Brewery. The lady in the Fayetteville visitor center recommended the food (Greek influence) as one of the best places to eat in town.

We enjoyed our lunch and then headed back to Sol. Time to plan our next few days depending on the weather forecast!