Why did we come to West Virginia during one of our recent road trips?
To visit America's newest National Park, of course.
Designated as such in 2020, NRG protects 53 miles of one of the oldest rivers in the world. The gorge averages 1,000 feet in depth and its most famous views are of the hemisphere's longest single span steel arch bridge.
There are many waterfalls, like Sandstone Falls, where we spotted Virginia bluebells, red buckeyes, and lots of rhododendron, and deer are all around as we took the Island Loop Trail. People love to whitewater raft here, but it was (refreshingly) too chilly for that in April when we went over Spring Break as part of a road trip that also included Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave.
As a new park, New River Gorge is admittedly strange. There is no park road to take you from one site to the next. Instead, you must drive in and out of the park, through towns, and even on an interstate. I had a hard time understanding the layout of the park based on the website, and NRG is not yet included in any of the travel guides I usually use to plan trips to national parks.
We stayed in an AirBnB near the Sandstone Visitor Center. Our backyard was the river itself, which was breathtaking.
You know the saying, "You can't get there from here?" Well, that's what it felt like as we drove 32 minutes from the Sandstone Visitor Center to Sandstone Falls, and another hour and 17 minutes to the northern end of the park to see the famous bridge. We went past churches, schools, gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and even a Walmart.
The bridge was neat, but you can drive over it without realizing what a treasure it is. On top, it looks like a regular four-lane highway going over a river. When you stop at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, though, you can take 178 steps down to an overlook for a great view of the bridge. Here, you can marvel at the engineering and design of the bridge, which was constructed from 1975-77.
At the Visitor Center, grab a map for the Fayette Station Road Audio Tour. As you drive down into the gorge and back up again, you can listen to a broadcast about the history and geography of the gorge. And you can stop along the way for photos.
On our way back to Sandstone, we explored the Grandview section of the park. It's a bit confusing as you drive through a neighborhood to find another visitor center, restrooms, and a playground. The highlight here is the Main Overlook, which has a great view of the river as it horseshoes.
There, we took my favorite hike at New River Gorge: Castle Rock and Grandview Rim. We loved the beautiful layered rocks that looked like fortresses. It was a short hike that allowed us to touch and feel the gorge formed by the river between 3 and 320 million years ago.
The park is new, but the New River itself is anything but "new." We look forward to returning to New River one day to raft in its fast-flowing current and to see any new amenities that the National Park Service adds to help visitors explore its beauty. Hopefully that includes a park road.
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