New River Gorge National Park

6/20/2022 | Pictures and Article By Chubby Squirrel

 Established as a national river in 1978 and redesignated as a national park in 2020, New River Gorge is the latest of many geographical treasures to acquire this famed status. Spanning over 50 miles, the young national park in West Virginia preserves its namesake, the New River, and the surrounding forest. Also inside the boundaries of this magnificient park is the United States' third tallest and the Western Hemisphere's longest single-span bridge. To start off our summer on a good note, my family and I visited this ancient, yet vital place for a few days.

 After double-checking that everything on the checklist had been packed, we set off on an hours-long road trip to beautiful West Virginia, which, as its motto claims, is "Wild and Wonderful". Of course, we had to play "Country Roads" as we entered the mountain state. The first thing I noticed was all the mountains. They were numerous and continued for as far as the eye can see. Our first stop at the park was the visitor center closest to the bridge. There, we descended down a wooden boardwalk (with tons of stairs cutting through the forest, to a viewpoint on which one could see both the New River down below and the roaring bridge up above. Inside the visitor center was information about the history of the park and a few interesting exhibits.

 The first thing that we did was go hiking. We embarked on an approximately 2-3 mile loop trail, which took us from the midst of an ancient conifer grove to a steep cliffside overlooking the New River. The view from the mouth of the gorge was breathtaking, even more so if you're not over-fond of heights, like me. There were rolling hills, lush with verdant flora. From a distance, it looked like a soft, fluffy ball that you could fall right asleep on. There were few biting insects, and the trail had scarcely any people.

 Many people like to go whitewater kayaking in the river, but unfortunately, since some of our group were scared of the rushing whitewater (and who can blame them?), we decided to pass on that. However, we did find an alternative activity: ziplining. As mentioned previously, I am not terribly fond of heights. However, who can resist a good zipline? The experience was indeed memorable, but not only because soaring through an ancient West Virginia forest is quite unforgettable. At one of the longer ziplines, one of our party did not manage to land correctly on the landing pad, and instead slid backwards off of it. The result was a (successful) rescue attempt to save the unfortunate person from dangling a few hundred feet above a rocky gorge forever.

 After an exhilarating morning of zipping through the brisk air, our group headed for another visitor center, crossing the bridge along the way. One is able to walk underneath the bridge for a price, but we decided against that course of action, for fear of being deafened by all the motor vehicles passing above. At the next visitor center we arrived at, we saw what I dubbed to be the Horseshoe Bend of the East. For those who haven't had the pleasure of visiting the Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, it is essentially a bend in the river, shaped like its namesake. The one in Arizona was carved out over millenia by the Colorado River; the New River runs similarly around this one. It was a spectacular sight, and a great way to conclude our visit to America's newest national park. I recommend paying New River Gorge National Park a visit if you just happen to be passing by!