Carter Caves State Resort Park, KY

OK. So not exactly in WV, but very close by. We live in the Tri-State area, and Carter Caves is about a 45 minute drive from our house in Huntington. Kentucky State Parks are legendary for their beauty, facilities, and low cost (free!). Carter Cave certainly lives up to the repuation. The park has a number of caves to explore, along with a myriad of hiking trails, camping, canoeing, and group naturalist/recreation programs. A few of the caves have guided tours. Currently, due to the native bat population at risk of White Nose Syndrome, only two caves are open to the public, and are by guided tour only. These are X-Cave and Cascade Cave. We went on the Cascade Cave tour, because it boasts an underground waterfall. The tour guide gave a good overview of history, and flash photography and flashlights were allowed. I don't know how I feel about that last point. Apparently, the policy is merely to not shine lights directly at bats, because it causes them to defecate. Well, you can guess whether or not that stopped people from doing it anyway (ahh, Kentucky). The tour is about an hour, and we got some shots of this column and the underground waterfall.


You have to drive about three miles the opposite way from the visitors' center to get to the parking lot for Cascade Cave. The trail head for the Box Canyon Trail is also near the parking lot, and since it was a gorgeous afternoon, we decided to stay right there after the tour and do the hike. The hike is a 3/4 mile loop trail that goes to the Cascade Natural bridge and passes a number of interesting geologic formations. Despite it's short length, the trail is relatively rugged and hilly. The park also has a series of caches on the trails with history and trivia questions about the area. They were easy to find without any GPS, but they are not meant to have stuff left or taken from them. After the hike we drove back to the visitor's center to find out more about the area. We had just enough time that afternoon for another short hike, so we walked the the Natural Bridge Trail, which starts at the visitors' center. It's an easy 1/2 mile walk that leads to the bridge. The bridge is completely natural, yet supports a paved 2-lane highway, and is considered unique to Kentucky. There are lots of other trails to do, anywhere from a quick jaunt to 10 miles. The camping facilities looked great, and we will consider returning to this park for an extended stay. It would be the only way to take in a good portion of all this park has to offer!

Hawk's Nest

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...

Welcome. This blog will focus on outdoor activities in and around West Virginia that our family has done, or plans to do. I will post reviews of the places and activities. While the focus is on family-oriented activities, the activities themselves need not be geared specifically toward families, per se. In fact, I plan on at least some of the posts to be on activities that one may not think is family-oriented, but we tackle it anyway as a family. Mountain biking, for example, is very popular among adults. However, I rarely see or hear of families going mountain biking. Well, West Virginia has some incredible mountain biking, with a good amount right down the road from us. I will soon post about mountain biking at Barboursville Park. So stay tuned.

We moved to West Virginia only recently, and have already been on some great hikes and sight-seeing adventures. The first reviews will be on these trips. Please follow along our adventures, make comments, and ask questions. :)