The Newest National Park: Part Two

 Monday morning we drove back to New River Gorge National Park to hike Endless Wall Trail. Once we got to the rim, the trail followed the rocks for about 3 miles. We started at Fern Creek Trailhead and hiked to Nuttall Trailhead. The views along the way were fantastic! There were about 6 places along the trail where rock climbers could access the rocks. The area is popular with climbers and hikers.

We started the trail crossing Fern Creek. The trail was well kept, but a little muddy from recent rain.

We ventured out on the rocks where climbers had access, but we didn't spot any climbers.

From all areas on the rim, we had excellent views of the surrounding mountain and New River Gorge.

Once we completed the trail and walked the road back to Fern Creek Trailhead (1/2 mile), we drove to the ghost town of Thurmond. Well, it did have a few people living there AND an Amtrak Stop, so was it really a ghost town? Today, what used to be the commissary for a thriving town, is now a visitor center for the national park (only open on weekends until Memorial Day). There was a geocache Adventure Lab for us to complete at Thurmond.

Many of the buildings are no longer standing, but those that are have name plates telling what they were or who owned them. This home belonged to a Childres!

 

To get into Thurmond you drove a narrow two way mountain road that reminded me of Kentucky 1427 from our first retirement trip....not for the faint of heart!  Once to Thurmond, it was a one lane bridge next to the railroad bridge with a weight limit of 10 tons! No rvs  at this part of the park!

Once away from Thurmond, we drove the scenic route back to our campground. We took WV 16 to US 60 to WV39 to WV 129. As we were near the junction of US 60 and WV 39, we spotted a waterfall. Of course, we stopped to see Cathedral Falls. Turns out it is part of West Virginia's Waterfall Trail (who knew?...certainly not us).

Once back at the campground, we watched two of the natives swimming with their family...

We planned another hike at New River Gorge for Tuesday. This time we hiked Long Point Trail and Timber Ridge. We combined the two trails so we would get in 5 miles. 

The hikes were both enjoyable, with Long Point having the best views. The trail started in a parking lot and went up through the woods to a rocky point overlooking the gorge.

If you look closely, you may see New River Bridge in the background of the next 2 photos.

Once we completed Long Point, we followed Timber Ridge Trail to its turnaround. It was a nice trail, but no good views. It serves as a connector trail to several other trails in the area. 

By then, it was lunch time! On to Bridge Works Brewery just south of Fayetteville. In fact, it was only a few miles from Freefolk Brewery where we ate on Sunday. They didn't have a kitchen at Bridge Works, but there was a food truck in the patio area. Bob had a burrito and I had chicken quesadillas....both were good, as was the beer.

On our last day at Battle Run, we decided to hike the dike trails near the campground.. We also found a couple of geocaches along the trail. We also had a good view across the lake of Sol in the campground.

Thursday was to be a travel day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up at the local Wal-Mart and getting ready to move.