What a beautiful afternoon at Natural Bridge State Park ! Steve and I were last here in November 2015 after I attended a conference in DC. At the time the park was privately owned, becoming a park in 2016. There have been some renovations of the main office area and the park. Steve remembers taking a shuttle bus down and then back up to the office, but this time, we had to walk down about 14 flights of stairs…. And then back up!

Our last travel day was one of the bounciest we have had in a while. Because our kitchen is in the back, we usually see aftermath of a lively travel day most clearly evident here. But, even though the silverware was all over the place, the scissors were on the floor under all the drawers, one of my Ove Gloves bounced off a hook, and the contents of the fridge moved enough to upend a tension rod, we did not have anything in the fridge spill or break. So we’ll call this a win!

How do you move an immovable object? Asking for a friend…

Coco has started sitting under me as I work at my desk. Even when I get up and push in the chair, she stays put. Steve and I have no idea why she started doing this but it’s been going on the last few weeks.

While out exploring West Virginia we saw a magnificent semi-truck on the road and just had to share!

We really appreciate our military and seeing patriotism celebrated in this manner was fantastic.
The truck driver was working (and we were all driving) so we couldn’t stop him to get the history, but I would love to see if the internet can do its magic and get us some more info! The driver was very friendly and waved as I awkwardly gawked at the awesomeness of his truck! I’m sure he gets a lot of attention for it.

One thing you may not know about Steve is that he loves seeing and learning about dams. While driving back from our day at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, we came across Bluestone Dam . Of course we pulled over to get a closer look!

Bluestone Dam is on the New River, forming Bluestone Lake. It is 165 feet tall and 2,048 feet long. It was built in the 1930s, and has a lot of the features of other Art Deco and Art Moderne style dams we’ve seen in our travels.

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.

We visited New River Gorge National Park during our stay in West Virginia. The main visitors center at Canyon Rim offers sweeping views of the gorge and river below. It’s located just southeast of the famous New River Gorge Bridge, so the overlooks here give you a sense of scale when comparing the bridge and the gorge.

The bridge is the longest steel single-span arch bridge in the western hemisphere and the 3rd highest bridge in the US. It was completed in 1977, bringing a much needed connection between the eastern and western sides of the New River. Every year during October, more than 80,000 people gather to commemorate the opening of the bridge on Bridge Day. During this celebration, you can watch hundreds of base jumpers dive off the bridge, one of the few exceptions to the ban on base jumping in National Parks. I bet that is a sight to see!

On the advice of a local, we took an evening to drive a few miles north and check out the historic town of Bramwell, WV .

In the late 1800’s during the coal boom, Bramwell was a place where wealthy coal operators lived - having more millionaires per capita than any other town in the US! The town sits in a curve of the Bluestone River with rail lines running to it and very close to the Pocahontas Coal Field making it an ideal location for corporate offices of a coal company.

While driving through Bluewell, WV we saw this really cool mural on the side of one of the King Tire building. This was painted by RodManVisions and accurately depicts the sounds all around us over the weekend as ATV/SxS riders head out early in the morning and come back at dusk after a long day on the trails. If ATV / SxS riding is your thing this is definitely an area you should check out!