The mountains of Pocahontas County WV are already showing a lot of color.   Just driving through the countryside is beautiful but we checked out a couple State Parks and a National Forest trail too.  The main attraction at Beartown SP is a boardwalk through rugged rock formations.  Everything, including the boardwalk, is moss and fern covered.  It must never dry out in the shade of towering cedar and maple and the narrow fissures of the formations.  Droop Mountain Battlefield SP is one of a large number of Civil War battle sites around this part of the country.  It is a peaceful landscape now of tree covered mountainsides and rolling meadows.

Typically NF trails are pretty minimalist with blazes just far enough apart to make you wonder if you are off trail and enough loose rock and roots to keep you watching your feet as much as the scenery.   Not theHillCreekFallstrail in theMonongahelaNational Forest.  Towering structures support stairs that hug the sides of a steep wooded gorge.  While the trailwork is impressive, Hill Creek is definitely the highlight of the hike.  There are three falls, 25, 45 and 63 feet high.  Rain over the past couple days made for some great views.    Bright colored leaves drift down around us and are scattered over trail and hillside.  Fall!  Another fun walk.

Tamarack is a shopping spot along 64 that brings together a number of WV artists to showcase their work all in one easy to get to spot.  It is not as quaint as checking out all the little shops but there is a lot less driving involved and it is still fun.  There is pottery, glass work, lots of stitchery from quilts to adorable fabric pigs, magnificent bronze coffee table sculptures, wildlife paintings on feathers and leaves (maybe my very favorite), carvings, toys and local foods.  Would you believe ramp wine?  Ramp jelly too.  Since we are sort of tight on space for stuff, I stuck to edibles.  We are sampling some of the less exotic, black raspberry jam and blackberry wine.  I will let you know how they are.

Many pictures show folks bungying off of, crawling around under, and parachuting off of but we chose to drive over, drive under, and hike around the New River Bridge.  It is an impressive structure (they claim it contains 40 million pounds of steel) spanning an absolutely beautiful gorge. Fayette Station Road weaves down the steep walls twisting back and forth under the towering span.  It crosses at river level then winds its way back up the other side of the gorge. Kent maneuvered the Miata expertly as always.  It was a great ride.   The bridge is the most know feature…well, next to the whitewater I guess; but there is a lot more to New River Gorge National River.

A preserved ghost Railroad town, Thurmond.  They shot a recent movie about coal miners’ strikes here.  There are many other coal towns, lumber towns, and railroad towns that have been entirely reclaimed by the mountains.  Thurmond can still give a little hint of what life might have been like around here in the heyday of coal in the early 1900s.

We got a look at the New before it enters the narrow gorges. Sandstone Falls tumbles 20 feet in a broad peaceful stretch of the river just before it is funneled into the more familiar twisting course squeezed between mountains.

It is a little sad to know that this river isn’t really wild any more.  It has six or more dams and the frothing swirling wild current that makes for amazing rafting, as well as the slow reflective pools are all products of our manipulation.

It is still a beautiful place.  Perhaps we will raft it again one day, when the weather is a little warmer!

Built in 1852, the Bridge at Philippi WVis the first double barrel (two lane) I have ever seen.  The yellow poplar shell protects magnificent arches that support the 285 ft span.  The inside construction detail is amazing.  This is the only covered bridge left in the United States that still has a US route crossing it.  US250.  The bridge has a place in history too.   It is the location of the first land battle of the Civil War.   We checked out three other bridges in the area, all wonderful creations but thePhilippiBridgebests them all.

A 215 foot drop that broke into misty streams as it fell.  Taughonnock Falls.