September 20-23, 2024
Friday, September 20
Over a long weekend in late September, Jeffrey and I had the chance to finally check out New River Gorge National Park! We started our trip by driving to Tygart Lake State Park after work. It was a fairly small state park in Grafton, West Virginia, but it did the job! We arrived around 10pm and went right to bed.
Saturday, September 21
In the morning, we took showers at the small bathhouse below the campgrounds before heading to Tygart Lake State Park Lodge for brunch! We both ordered the biscuits with sausage gravy, and it was delicious! We were also able to sit at a table that overlooked the (drained) lake, and it was such a pretty view as the leaves were starting to change. At the lodge was also a small craft show, which we enjoyed walking around.
We visited the Tygart Lake State Park visitor’s center as well and then started our drive toward New River Gorge! On the drive, we turned over 111,111 miles on the van! This was a pretty big deal, especially to Jeffrey!
We stopped in Thurmond a while later and drove through what used to be a thriving city that turned ghost town. In our explorations, we visited the old train station, saw where a massive and once-renowned hotel stood before it burned to the ground, and drove through the narrow hill-side town. (Sidenote: We saw an adorable black lab while watching a train go by.)
We drove around a bit more before finding a small waterfall where we were able to take our shoes off and do some creek walking to cool down. It was quite warm!
About mid-afternoon, we decided that we wanted to camp at The Alpine Climbing Club (the same campground we camped at on our way to Daytona Beach). We knew there were nice showers and knew what to expect in the campsite, so we figured for $20, why not?
We got to The Alpine Climbing Club just before dusk, and we were a bit disappointed to learn that there was a fire ban due to drought. We were hoping to meet some new friends on this trip (since we weren’t on a time crunch to get to the beach). Communal bonfires, especially at this campground, are a main way to make friends. It was pretty dead without the fire with only a few wanderers around, with most being in their personal campgrounds. While disappointing, it wasn’t the end of he world. We were grateful to have a nice campsite regardless.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
We woke up at The Alpine Climbing Club and got ourselves ready for fun in New River Gorge! We started in the visitor’s center to get our park stamps for our national parks book. We did a fun hike to a really pretty overlook before going on a drive through the 45-minute old-route down into the gorge. Before the bridge, this was the only way to pass over the gorge and it took quite a long time with lots of twists and turns. We pulled over along the river for a quick lunch and were lucky enough to watch some kayakers pass through some of the white water! Jeffrey thinks it was at least a Level 4 rapid, with the kayakers team cheering them on once passing through.
After watching the water a bit longer, we made our way to Sandstone falls at the base of the gorge. It was a pretty shallow, long waterfall that was very pretty! We weren’t exactly sure how to get to the falls, so we made our own path through the brush to get closer.
After leaving the waterfall, we decided we were ready for a “shower” of some sort. We weren’t sure where we would be sleeping that night, so we wanted to find some sort of body of water to feel clean.
We ended up pulling off along a river and jumping in for a quick cool-off. The water was quite strong so we stayed pretty close to the bank, but we felt so much better after going for a quick dip.
We also stopped in Grandview and visited the Grandview Visitor’s Center where we got to see a beautiful overlook of the river! It was one of the prettiest views of the trip for sure!
For dinner that night, we went to Pies and Pints in Fayetteville, West Virginia. We ended up getting the street corn pizza (corn, tahini, jalapenos, lime, cilantro, scallions, chipotle crema, spices), pine & swine pizza (pineapple, bacon, red onion, feta), and the peppadew pizza (goat cheese, bacon, red onion, peppadews, cheese, herbs, honey). We weren’t planning on trying too many new pies, but they had messed up the original pizza order and corrected it, thus bringing us out a third pizza! I think my favorite was the peppadew. I really liked the salty, creamy, goat cheese clusters and the honey drizzled on top. It was so yummy! We had lots of leftovers (which made us super grateful for our fridge!), and it was really delicious. Our waitress (Laura? Lauren? I can’t remember) was fantastic! She was super personable and friendly!
We ended up driving to Battle Run Campground on Summersville Lake, West Virginia. We arrived around 9pm, and I was a bit afraid they were going to turn us away. At first, it seemed they were when they said they weren’t taking reservations. We said we would be happy to pay, and the manager said we could just go in! We could pick any spot we wanted out of the entire park for free! We chose a site fairly close to the entrance in between a nice built-out van and a beautiful airstream. Had the lake not been drained, it would’ve been a beautiful lakeside view too. We were so grateful for our campsite, especially when it started to pour throughout the night.
Monday, September 23, 2024
We woke up to a landscaping team mowing (yes, mowing) the “lawn” while it poured. The fact that they were also mowing non-existent grass made the whole encounter a bit more interesting. We took showers and then made our way back home!
We had such a fun time in New River Gorge and were glad to explore a new part of the country!
Leave a Reply