Close to Beckley, WV is the New River Gorge National River area. I hope to post many trips in this area, because there is so much to do. Activities in the area include whitewater rafting, boat tours, hiking, biking, wildlife observation, zip-line tours... You get the picture. We ventured to Hawk's Nest State Park to do a little hiking and see the sights. Our aim was to find a trail or two that would give us a good introduction to the area.
Hawk's Nest encompasses a portion of the gorge. The park has a number of lookouts over the river, and an aerial tramway that starts at the lodge. We opted to take the tram down to the Nature Center next to the river, and hike on a portion of the rail trail that is managed by the town of Ansted. Not without stopping at the Nature Center, first, though. It has some great hands-on activities for kids, and we found out a lot of information about the area, activities, and restaurants in nearby Fayetteville. The town of Fayetteville, as it turns out, is right next to the famous New River Gorge bridge, which I will save for a later post.
As the name suggests, the trail is a converted railway, well suited for hiking and biking. It is 1.8 miles one way, and passes by trestles and waterfalls. Also along the trail are remnants of coal mining activity. I was amazed that this mine entrance was not locked!
We weren't sure we found a waterfall or not, however. The trestles in the picture is where the old railway went over a dry creek leading to the main tributary that connects with the river near the Nature Center. We supposed during a wet season it could be a waterfall. The main tributary does have smaller falls. We did not hike the entire 1.8 miles, so it's possible we did not go far enough to see bigger falls. It was a little late in the afternoon and we needed to head back. Regardless, we were enamored by what we saw along the way on our introduction to the New River Gorge area. We definitely will be coming back!We took the tram back up, and took a side trip to Fayetteville and the New River Gorge bridge. Spectacular, is probably the best word for it. We ended up eating a pizza dinner in Fayetteville at the Pies and Pints, which was great. The pictures we took of the bridge did not come out very well. I encourage readers to link on the information for the bridge. There are lots of activities to do around the bridge area, so I plan to post something at a later date after we go back. White water rafting? Zip line? Hiking? Who knows...
