Exploring West Virginia
New River Gorge National Park, Coopers Rock State Forest, Harpers Ferry, and a side trip to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania
April and May, 2022
New River Gorge Bridge
New River Gorge Natl. Park is the newest National Park. Originally a National River, it was redesignated in 2021. We had never heard of it until it became a national park. It was definitely worth the visit. There are so many hiking trails, and some of those have great views of the gorge. We only had one day, so we didn’t see as much as we would have liked. Plus, since it was the off-season, we could not visit the Grandview Visitor Center, which is open only in summer. We started our visit at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center next to New River Gorge Bridge at the north end of the 53-mile long park. Here we saw exhibits about the history of the coal-mining towns in the area. We also picked up a map of the Fayette Station Road down into the gorge, and maps and advice from a ranger on best hikes for a good view. We decided on the Long Point Trail, because it’s not difficult, and it has a great view of the bridge. So, we drove the road into the gorge, and then after lunch in Fayetteville, hiked the 1.6 mile trail to the view.
At the time the bridge was built, it was the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world. The arch span is 1700’ long. It is still the longest of its kind in the U.S., and is also the 3rd-highest bridge in the U.S. at 876 feet above the river.
View at the bottom of the New River Gorge on the Fayette Station Road. Until the bridge was built, the only way to get from one side of the gorge to the other was down the very narrow road, a trip of 40 minutes.
Fantastic view of the New River Gorge and the bridge on the out-and-back Long Point Trail.
We hope to return to this park someday, as we barely scratched the surface of all there is to do and see. Autumn would be spectacular.
Lots of redbuds lined the roads on our drive through W. Virginia at the beginning of May.
Our next stop was Coopers Rock State Forest. We had a spacious campsite. The only problem was that the site was angled the wrong direction on the narrow one-way road. We had to turn the RV around in an empty site so we could back into our site. If the campground had been staffed, or if we could have picked up a campground map, (there wasn’t one on the park website) we would have known we should have driven the wrong direction on the one-way road to get to our site. Then, once we finally parked the RV and started to set up, we discovered our air conditioner wasn’t blowing cold air. That also meant we didn’t have a working electric heat pump, either. There was nothing we could do about that until we were able to get to a town with a mobile RV tech. Not a great start to our stay! At least we had propane heat.
The arrow shows the direction the park says you’re supposed to drive, but then there’s no way to back a 32’ RV into a tight V-shaped turn onto that site. There are drop-offs on either side of the narrow road, so driving on the grass wasn’t an option. We were not happy campers!
Once we got past the shaky start of our visit, we went to Coopers Rock. The view from there is great.
Coopers Rock
The leaves weren’t out on all the trees, yet. That’s the Cheat River.
The rock slopes downward. Good thing there are railings!
Rattlesnake warnings everywhere!
There are a lot of trails in this park, but there had been a lot of rain, so many trails were muddy. We had wanted to hike the Ravens Rock Trail to another overlook of the Cheat River Canyon, but the beginning of the trail was completely covered in mud and water. We didn’t want to walk around it off the trail because of the possibility of 1: ticks 2: rattlesnakes 3: poison ivy, so we gave up on that. Instead, we waited a day for the trails to dry up more, and hiked to the Henry Clay Iron Furnace. This furnace, which was bigger than we thought it would be, was in operation during the first half of the 19th century. There was a village of about 100 houses, a school, store, church, and two roads. The furnace is all that’s left, and it is hard to visualize the area as a loud, busy place, as it is now in a quiet wood at the bottom of the hills.
While we were camped at Coopers Rock, we spent a couple of hours touring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, about a 45 minute drive away. The house was built for the Kaufmann family in the late 1930’s.
The iconic view of Fallingwater—you can’t see the waterfall from the house.
Multiple cantilevered decks are suspended over the waterfall. The drive on the right passes over the river and leads to the small and unobtrusive “front” door.
Stairs are suspended above the river that leads to the falls, but the stairs don’t go all the way down to the water.
Next to the front door is this little stream of water coming out of the wall, which was used to wash feet!
We were only allowed to take photos of the main living area, and could not photograph the upstairs. This dining area was open to the living room. We were told that when the family moved in, there were about 50 leaks in the house—that was right after construction was finished!
We weren’t allowed to walk into the kitchen, but could peek in. Wright didn’t give much attention to kitchens—our guide said Wright was all about the living spaces.
The door blocked the view of this part of the kitchen—Craig had to stick his arm way out to get the picture!
Behind the main house is the guest house and small unheated swimming pool with cold water from the stream. The roof over the walkway leading to the guest house was designed to mimic the drop of the waterfall.
So cool how the supports for the deck are built into the moss-covered boulder!
Our last stop in West Virginia was Harpers Ferry. We spent an afternoon exploring the historic little town at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, where as you stand at The Point in West Virginia, you look across the rivers to Maryland and Virginia.
The headquarters for the Appalachian Trail is in Harpers Ferry, which is almost the midpoint of the trail.
This is the Appalachian Trail! Here it runs next to train tracks over the Potomac to Maryland, and then through a tunnel.
John Brown’s Fort. This building was the Armory fire engine and guard house. Abolitionist John Brown and his followers barricaded themselves here in 1859. His raid was an attempt to start a revolt among enslaved people. While the raid failed, John Brown’s actions and his subsequent execution did influence opinion on both sides of the issue of slavery, and contributed to southern states’ decision to secede, and to the election of Lincoln to the presidency.
On our way from Harpers Ferry to eastern Pennsylvania, we made a very quick stop at the Haddam Shoe House, just to take a picture. There was no place for an RV to park, and it was raining, so this detour took only a minute.
When we realized our travel day would take us close to the home of friends we met last year while we were camping in Utah, we arranged to meet up with Dorene and Rick at their beautiful home, and spent several enjoyable hours visiting with them over a yummy lunch. The downside of this nomadic lifestyle is that we miss spending time with friends, so it was nice to have the chance to have a great conversation.
From here our plans were to see the du Pont mansions and gardens of Pennsylvania and Delaware, which will be the subject of my next posts.