This was the start of our trip to West Virginia. We drove to Bristol Virginia and stayed at their City Park, Sugar Hollow Campground. It is a beautiful park up in the woods with a bit of space between campers. All electric sites and clean. Lot's of bike trails as well as walking trails. After we got set up we visited with the host who was very informative and talkative. We hiked the Wetlands Trail before dinner and saw baby ducks swimming the creek.The next morning we hiked the Rocky Top trail before heading North. We got to see deer.
Day two: We left Bristol Virginia stopping in Princeton City Park, West Virginia for lunch. From there we continued to Bluestone SP where we had reservations for three nights at the Meador campground. After we set up camp we drove around the park to familiar ourselves with it. Then we attended a spoon carving demostration by Jonathan an Interpretive Ranger. We took a dinner break, hiked the Riverview Trail to the two waterfalls and back, then we joined Jonathan again for the campfire. The Riverview Trail was overgrown, but the falls were pretty and we saw a raccoon. Jonathan had a lot of knowledge to share and was fun to talk to.
Day Three: We drove to Pipestem Resort State Park. First stop was the Bolar Lookout Tower right at the enterance. There is a paved road for you to walk to the top of the hill and then climb the tower for some good views of the surrounding mountains. From there we went to the Nature Center for a map. The Ranger there, Julie, was extremely friendly and helpful. Lora loved her because they both got so excited about flowers. From there we went to the McKeever Lodge for a overlook of the gorge.
We headed to Brush Creek Falls State Park and hiked the three and three quarter miles to Brush Creek Falls and White Oak Creek Falls and back. Lora was blessed to see a black snake. We had lunch at White Oak Creek Falls. There were quite a few people hiking today.
We headed to Camp Creek State Park and Forest. We drove to see Mash Fork Falls and Campbell Falls and got some play time in the creek.
Day Four: We drove to Cascades National Recreation trail in Pembroke VA for a four mile hike which we extended for another mile to see the upper falls as well. There was some beautiful stone work done by the CCC on the lower trail. We took it on the way up to the 66 foot falls. We ate lunch at the falls and then climbed to the upper trail. There was a split where the trail continues at the top. I guy was coming down so I asked what we were missing. Well a half mile up was the upper falls and if you continued a mile further it went to an overlook of the gorge called Barney's Wall. We hiked to the upper falls which was really pretty. We found some ground bees which we had to avoid to get to the bottom of the falls.
On the way back to camp we stopped in Narrows at the Mill Creek Nature Park. There was another hike to a couple of water falls, but we were done for the day. Back to camp we went.
Monday we headed home..
