New River Gorge National Park

We visited this park several months after its status was elevated from a National Recreation Area to a National Park. The area is very beautiful and the park has several regions for your enjoyment including lots of hiking options. What the park is really known for though is whitewater rafting. If you are going to visit – you have to go on a whitewater rafting trip. Otherwise, it is going to feel like you really didn’t get the full experience. Luckily, there are tons of outfitters and trip options for all skill levels including those who have never done it before.

When to Go

This park can technically be visited year round, but most visit in the Spring, Summer, or Fall which are all great options. The New River, which is where the whitewater rafting trips operate within the park boundary, is typically at its highest level in the April/May timeframe which can create some epic whitewater trips. The water level steadily decreases in the Summer into the Fall, but could spike back up based on precipitation received. Our trip took place in August at a water depth of about 2 feet 8 inches and was a ton of fun! For comparison purposes, in April/May – the water depth has gotten to 18 feet in the past. If you go in the Fall, you would have the added benefit of the leaves changing colors which would create some amazing views from the various outlooks around the park as well as from the river if rafting.

How to Get Here

If you are flying, you’ll want to try and fly to Charleston, WV which is about an hour drive to the park. Another option would be Pittsburgh, but you would be driving for about 3.5 hours from there. Keep in mind the park is located in the Appalachian Mountains – so the drive isn’t going to be boring. You’ll be weaving around and over mountains and have great views most of the way.

Trip Length

We spent three days exploring the park which felt like the right amount of time. One of those days was spent just on a whitewater rafting trip. We didn’t find ourselves rushing around from site to site which is always nice and felt like we got to see the majority of what the park had to offer (though a couple areas & trails were closed due to recent mud slides).

Where to Stay

There are several options for lodging in and around the park. We chose to stay at a budget hotel down in Beckley, WV because it was located around the middle of the park’s west side which gave us reasonably quick access (30-40 minutes) to both the north and south areas of the park (it’s a huge park in case you were wondering). If you are only interested in whitewater rafting, you would want to say in the Canyon area (north side) which is where all of the trips take off from. We would recommend Adventures on the Gorge which is the resort we did our rafting trip with. They have cabins, tent sites, RV sites, glamping sites, and several other options to go along with a ton of guided and non-guided activities.

What to Do

We have broken the park up into four main areas below. We are going to start the trip in the northern section of the park (Canyon Rim) and then head to the south to Thurmond Depot, Grandview, and Sandstone areas.

Canyon Rim

This is where the majority of visitors head when they visit New River Gorge National Park. It’s where all the whitewater rafting action is located and is also home to the New River Gorge Bridge which is a huge attraction. You’ll want to first stop by the Canyon Rim visitor center to pick up trail information for all of the various park areas and also to walk through the small museum and watch the park movie. In addition, there are incredible views from inside the visitor center of the New River Gorge below. Once you are done inside, there is a short trail located right at the visitor center we would recommend:

Canyon Rim Boardwalk Trail — 0.1 miles RT, Moderate, 15-20 minutes

This is a super easy trail if you just go to the upper overlook. The problem is – unless there are no leaves of the trees when you visit, you won’t be able to see anything from the upper overlook. So you’ll need to descend the ~180 stairs to the lower overlook which has awesome gorge and bridge views making the tougher walk worth it!

Once you are done with this short hike, it’s time to head to a slightly longer one with more amazing views of the New River Gorge.

Endless Wall Trail to Diamond Point — 2.0 miles RT, Moderate, 1.5 hours

If we were to recommend just one hike in the park – it would be this one. This is a relatively easy hike with only a little bit of elevation. You can make this closer to a 3 mile hike by turning it into a loop which involve hiking the last half mile on the park round back to your original parking lot. We recommend parking at the Fern Creek area and hiking out a mile the Diamond Point overview (which is clearly marked) and then coming back the way you came to the parking lot which is about 2 miles round trip. This is an enjoyable hike mostly through the forest and as you get closer to the canyon rim, you will start to have several overlooks of the New River Gorge where you will realize how far up you are compared to the river below. The hike will culminate at Diamond Point Overlook which has incredible views of the Gorge and the whitewater rafting route below in the river. Depending on the time of day of your hike, you are likely to see lots of rafts coming down the river through various rapids and you also can a partial bridge view from this location.

A couple other trail options that we didn’t do this time, but would consider if open in the future are Long Point Trail (1.6 miles ending in awesome views of the New River Gorge Bridge) and Kaymoor Trail (network of 8.6 miles of trails which were closed due to mud slide damage during our visit).

There are several other non-hiking activities in this area of the park as well:

Whitewater Rafting

As we mentioned above, this is the main park attraction. If you come to visit this National Park and you don’t go whitewater rafting – you are really missing the point. There are several outfitters with many options to choose from – from half day to full day to multi-day overnight and from easy family friendly to super challenging trips. We went with Adventures on the Gorge which is the most well known outfitter in the area. You can lodge there and also take part in several other activities they offer such as ziplining (you get up to 55 mph), rock climbing, kayaking, or additional whitewater rafting such as the nearby Gauley River which is one of the most difficult trips in the world (all Class 5/6 rapids). The “upper” part of the New River is the more family friendly section if you have never rafted before and don’t feel like starting with the harder “lower” section of the New River.

We chose to do the Full Day Lower New River trip which is what the majority of visitors choose. The trip lasted about 5 hours which included a 30 minute stop for lunch about halfway through the trip. As mentioned above, the water depth for us was about 2 feet 8 inches which still provided an exciting trip. The rapids were mostly Class 3/4 with one Class 5 rapid (“The Meat Grinder”). Our guide took us “surfing” in a couple spots as well which essentially means you paddle upstream back into a rapid to “surf” on it for a bit. That can be quite dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing, but we had a blast (although we got super wet being in the front of the raft). Neither of us fell out of the raft, but there were several people “ejected” from their rafts during the trip (all were recovered unhurt!). The New River is nice because it is not constant rapids. You’ll go over a rapid and then float for a while before the next rapid which gives you a nice break to catch your breath. We also got the chance to pull over to the side and jump off a rock into the river in one of the calmer areas. One employee will go ahead of the rafts and stop on the side of the river to take your video as you go over some of the more difficult rapids and you’ll have a chance to purchase this (~$50 in August 2021) at the end.

We should note (and the guides will say the same thing) – this isn’t a theme park. Whitewater rafting is inherently dangerous. We saw at least one plaque on rocks marking where someone died on the same trip we took. Listen to your guide at all times and don’t showboat your way down the river.

Fayette Station Road

If you are interested in what it was like to cross the New River before the New River Gorge bridge was built (1977) – take a ~40 minute drive on Fayette Station Road. You will slowly work your way down to river level where you will cross the old bridge (which has great views of the new bridge). You’ll then wind back up through the gorge before ultimately coming back to the interstate highway near the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. Now that the New River Gorge bridge has been built – the trip only takes 40 seconds instead of 40 minutes.

BridgeWalk

This is one activity we wish we would have done, but didn’t realize it was an option until it was too late to book a reservation. It costs around ~$70 (as of August 2021), but you can take a guided walk of the entire 3,030 foot length of the New River Gorge Bridge with Bridge Walk. It supposedly takes 2-3 hours to complete including a shuttle to and back from the bridge. The walk takes place underneath the bridge along a two foot wide catwalk (keep in mind you are 876 feet above the river). You will be connected to the bridge in case you do slip and fall, but even knowing that – we imagine the adrenaline will be pumping. We plan to do this activity on our next trip to the park.

Nuttallburg

This was the biggest coal mining town in the area and is a great for those interested in the history of the park. Unfortunately, this area was closed due to mud slide damage on our visit and therefore we will have to try again another time.

From here – we will move south to Thurmond Depot which is another great option for history buffs in the park.

Thurmond Depot

This area of the park preserves the town of Thurmond which was a boomtown in the early 1900s. With all the coal in the area, it mostly passed through Thurmond Depot which made this the top revenue producing depot on the entire C&O railroad at the time. Because of that, the rest of the town benefitted greatly. However, the town started to suffer during the Great Depression and then became virtually extinct when the automobile was introduced which greatly reduced reliance on passenger trains.

You’ll want to start in the Thurmond Depot Visitor Center which the park service renovated in 1995. There are some exhibits to view and if you are lucky (we were!), you’ll get to experience a train rumbling by just feet outside of the visitor center’s walls. It is still an active track today for trains carrying coal and even one Amtrak passenger train from Chicago which does not have a scheduled stop in Thurmond, but it will stop if you flag it down to board.

Once you are done in the visitor center, there is a short walking tour (plan for 15-30 minutes) through Thurmond where you will get to see some of the buildings still standing today such as the National Bank of Thurmond which boasted a 3% interest rate on your savings at the time it closed. There are interpretive signs along the way describing the buildings still standing as well as buildings which have since burned down like the Lafeyette Hotel. You’ll also have a great view of the Coal Tower which would drop 500 tons of coal into engines to power the trains coming through.

There is a steep road that you can drive to see some of the old houses (and some which are still inhabited), but we would recommend four wheel drive for this. We tried to go up in a two wheel drive and though better of it and backed up and turned around.

Next – let’s head further south to Grandview which boasts some incredible views of the New River.

Grandview

This is likely the most relaxing area of New River Gorge National Park. There is a small visitor center, which is open seasonally, where you can get information on the area trails or ask the ranger any burning questions on your mind. Several picnic tables are around the parking lot as well in case you just want to relax for a while in this peaceful area. If you are into camping – this area boasts a number of camp sites as well. We decided to do some hiking here – and there are several options to consider.

Grandview Rim Trail – 3.2 miles RT, Moderate, 2 hours

This trail can be hiked in part or in full without missing out on anything. That is because the trail goes along the canyon rim from the Main Overlook to Turkey Spur, but there is also a road taking you from the Grandview parking lot to Turkey Spur – so it is really up to you on how much you want to hike vs. drive. We chose to walk out to the Main Overlook which provides stunning views of the New River Gorge below with the river winding through the canyon. After this, we chose to drive out to Turkey Spur instead of walking which turned out to be a great decision as we started to hear a thunderstorm approaching while at Turkey Spur and certainly would have been drenched had we decided to walk! Once you get to Turkey Spur, you’ll have to climb a good number of stairs to get to the top (the moderate portion of the trail) even if you drive over. Once you get to the top though – it will be worth it as you’ll have great views of the Gorge below from several overlooks and angles. It is another great spot to eat lunch if you have time (and don’t have a thunderstorm bearing down on you!).

Tunnel Trail – 0.5 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes

This is a nice easy spur trail that you can take right next to the Main Overlook which will loop you back around to the parking lot. You’ll get to walk under some really large rock overhangs and it is shaded the whole way. There are actually tunnels as well, but they were closed during our visit and it is not clear how often they are actually open. Even without the tunnels though – this is a worthwhile short peaceful walk through the woods.

Big Buck Trail – 0.9 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes

This is another short easy trail through the forest. There are signs along the trail for each type of tree you pass by which was surprisingly quite a few. If you choose to do this walk – apply bug spray before starting. We made the mistake of not doing this and found ourselves rushing through it to get out of the mosquito haven we entered. Don’t be surprised if you get a glimpse of deer out in the woods as they seem to be very frequent here. We came across a doe and fawn on our drive around the Grandview area roads and the fawn tried coming up right to our car window – so clearly people are feeding the wildlife is not good at all.

Once you are done with this area – it’s time to head to the southernmost area of the park – Sandstone – for a view of an awesome waterfall.

Sandstone

The Sandstone Visitor Center is the place to start here and it is located about 50 minutes away from where we started at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center to give you an idea of the size of this park – and most of that driving is on interstates where you are going 65-70 mph. The Sandstone Visitor Center was converted from an old school and we found to be the nicest visitor center of the park. There are lots of exhibits and also the park movie to watch. The ranger will also likely remind you that if you want to see the main attraction of this area of the park – Sandstone Falls – you have a lot more driving to do. To get to the Falls, you have to drive down to the city of Hinton – cross the New River, and then drive back up the other side towards the Visitor Center. In reality, you end up pretty close mileage wise to the Vistor Center – but it takes 35-40 minutes of driving to actually get there (and then of course another 35-40 minutes to get back where you came from). For this reason, many people don’t make it out to the Falls which makes for a nice experience if you do decide to make the drive.

Along the drive, there is a Sandstone Falls Overlook, but similar to some of the other overlooks in the park – unless the leaves are off the trees at the time of your visit – you are going to see basically nothing. If you have time – we definately recommend making the full drive out to the Falls. Even in August with the water level down compared to the Spring – it was a cool waterfall to visit. We can only imagine what it is like in the Spring with the river raging at much higher levels.

Sandstone Falls Boardwalk Trail – .25 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes

This is an easy relaxing walk where you will quickly get a view of “Lower Falls” close to the parking lot as the water traverses through many “islands” before falling 10-25 feet. Continue out to the main overlook for a view of the main falls and some rapids on the New River shortly after the falls. There is no close up view like you get at many waterfalls around the country – so don’t be disappointed when you get there. This waterfall spans 1,500 feet aross hortizontally which is what makes it impressive – not the vertical drop. And when the New River water level is up in the Spring – we imagine the power is quite different than what we got in August.

Island Loop Trail – 0.5 miles RT, Easy, 30 minutes

This is a spur trail off of the Sandstone Falls Boardwalk which takes you on a walk around the largest “island” below the falls. It is a nice walk through the woods which culminates with views of the New River at river level. From what we understand, this is also a good place to go fishing which is allowed. It is not a very populated trail. We ended up grabbing a stick to try and knock down all of the spider webs we kept walking into along the trail – meaning no one else had been out there yet by mid-morning!

That is all New River Gorge National Park has to offer! We felt like we got to see about everything, but also have a few things to come back for which is always a positive in our eyes.