New River Gorge: 70,000 Acres of Pure Wonder
The New River Gorge National Park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land. That’s the equivalent of ~109 square miles or more than 53,000 football fields. It’s HUGE.
It was a bit rainy the day we visited, so we elected to drive down to Grandview, the Sandstone Visitors center, and the Sandstone Falls overlook after our stop at Canyon Rim.
Grandview definitely lives up to its name! After winding through residential and farmland, seeing all the amazing Catawba rhododendrons in bloom, we arrived at a large park, complete with an amphitheater, picnic areas, and open fields to play. Just a short walk to an overlook, and we were rewarded with incredible views of the gorge, forest, and river, which was more than 1400 feet below us.
Next, we went to the Sandstone Visitors center. It is a really neat building! Once a school and quarry site, the building was built using green building initiatives. Just a few of these are the reclamation of water for use onsite and how the building was designed. The building itself is made partially of recycled materials, is set up to maximize the use of the sun, and even has lighting that is controlled by the amount of sunlight received inside the building (more sun means dimmer lights and less electricity use). Inside has a small store and a well done exhibit about the New River and its watershed.
After the visitors center, we drove a couple miles to the Sandstone Falls overlook. This part of our day was a bit of a disappointment, only because the brush had grown so high that we were unable to actually view the falls from the overlook. If we had more time, we would have driven the extra hour or so to the front view of the falls, but it is on our list for next trip!
We really enjoyed our rainy day trip to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. The views in this park are some of the best we’ve encountered at any NPS managed property.
