3/11/23 New River Gorge National Park, WV – Between the holidays, work, and hibernating for the winter, we haven’t done a lot of adventuring since our road trip to Montana. It felt like it was time to get back out there again. And you only turn 30 once. I created a list of different places I was interested in visiting and Kealy chose New River Gorge. One, because it’s a national park and two, because it’s been on our list for quite a while.
So, at 5am we started to pack up for a long day ahead. We weren’t packing in preparation to stay; it was going to be a 4.5 hour trip one way. West Virginia (and I think a lot of the country) was getting hit with a winter storm the following day, so we didn’t want to drive back in that. The drive there is mountainous and goes through the panhandle of Maryland. We drove through familiar parts of West Virginia from our camping trips there.
The drive felt so long, but yet once you get there it hits you. The busy highway in West Virginia turns into the main visitor center of New River Gorge National Park. The visitor center felt like a hangout in itself with places to sit and take in the gorge. But, we were there on a cold windy March day so we were ready to go on some short hikes (after eating our lunches in the car). We did a trail famous for its views of the bridge. The stairs down were snow covered. It was surreal to finally see the bridge that I’ve seen in so many photos. There were also people doing the bridge walk on the catwalk underneath. We added that to our bucket list for a nicer day. The New River Gorge area has so much to offer – climbing, a passenger train that goes through the gorge, and endless hiking.
After getting our postcards, stickers, and stamps we had a decision to make. Do we drive another hour and a half to get to Sandstone Falls, go home, or visit another park? Well, an hour and a half later we arrived at Sandstone Falls. The drive there went further away from our destination to come back around the mountain and into town on the other side of the river. The falls were definitely worth the drive.
We stopped at a lookout above the falls, which was really cool. The river was rushing after all the rain. Our last stop – Sandstone Falls. We were blown away by the wall of waterfalls. Every turn on the boardwalk left us in awe.
