Camping

Potomac Highlands

All terrain in West Virginia above 4,000 feet lies in this region, including Spruce Knob at 4,863 feet.

Greenbrier Valley

The Greenbrier Valley sits on Greenbrier limestone, producing karst topography: sinkholes, springs, sinking streams and extensive cave systems, several with more than forty miles of surveyed passage.

Mountain Lakes

The geographic center of the state and its least-visited region.

New River Gorge

The New River has cut a gorge roughly 1,000 feet deep through Nuttall sandstone, protected since 2020 as New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

Summersville Lake

West Virginia's largest lake and by a wide margin its clearest — 2,700 acres of blue-green water in a sandstone basin, popular for scuba diving, paddleboarding and boating.

Babcock State Park

Home of the Glade Creek Grist Mill, the most photographed building in West Virginia — a working reconstruction assembled from parts of three historic mills, sitting on a boulder-strewn creek.

Pipestem Resort State Park

A full resort park perched above the Bluestone Canyon, with an aerial tram descending 1,100 feet to a lodge on the river — the only state park tram in West Virginia.

Twin Falls Resort State Park

A quiet resort park in Wyoming County with a lodge, golf course and two waterfalls on Black Fork and Marsh Fork.

Greenbrier River Trail

Seventy-eight miles from Cass to Caldwell on a former Chesapeake & Ohio logging grade, crossing 35 bridges and passing through 2 tunnels, following the Greenbrier River the entire way.

Watoga State Park

West Virginia's largest state park at over 10,100 acres, built largely by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park

A preserved company logging town and a working fleet of Shay geared steam locomotives that climb the original grades to Whittaker Station and on to Bald Knob — at 4,842 feet the second-highest point in West Virginia, reachable by train.

Blue Bend Recreation Area

A CCC-built swimming area on Anthony Creek in the Monongahela National Forest, with a deep green pool below a stone-walled beach, a campground and a loop trail up onto the ridge.

Seneca State Forest

West Virginia's oldest state forest, 11,684 acres along the Greenbrier River with rustic CCC cabins that have no electricity, a fire tower rentable as lodging, and a quiet trail network.

Moncove Lake State Park

A small park in Monroe County built around a 144-acre lake with warm-water fishing for largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish, plus a swimming pool.

Blackwater Falls State Park

A 57-foot falls where the Blackwater River drops into an eight-mile canyon, its water stained amber by hemlock and spruce tannins.

Smoke Hole Canyon

A steep, narrow limestone canyon where the South Branch of the Potomac cuts through Cave Mountain — excellent smallmouth fishing, quiet canoe water at the right levels, dispersed camping, caves in the walls and a nineteenth-century chapel at the upper end.

Lost River State Park

A 3,712-acre CCC-era park in Hardy County with cabins, stables and the Cranny Crow Overlook — a rock outcrop at 3,200 feet with a view said to reach into four states.

Kumbrabow State Forest

The highest state forest in West Virginia, 9,474 acres of red spruce and northern hardwood on Rich Mountain, with rustic cabins, native brook trout in Mill Creek and almost no one there.

Stuart Recreation Area

A CCC-built recreation area on the Shavers Fork near Elkins with a campground, picnic shelters and river access — the practical basecamp for the central Monongahela National Forest and the Otter Creek and Cheat Mountain country..

Coopers Rock State Forest

A 12,747-acre state forest above the Cheat River Canyon.

Big Bear Lake Trail Center

A long-established private trail center in Preston County with dozens of miles of cross-country singletrack and doubletrack around a lake, plus camping.

Audra State Park

A compact park on the Middle Fork River built around a boulder-strewn swimming area and the Alum Cave boardwalk, which runs beneath an overhanging rock shelter above the river.

Tygart Lake State Park

A 1,750-acre reservoir behind a 1930s Corps of Engineers dam near Grafton, with a lodge, marina, scuba diving and steep wooded shoreline.

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park

A 2,650-acre lake with the most developed resort facilities of any West Virginia lake park — a lodge, marina, Arnold Palmer golf course and the state's largest open-water fetch for small-boat sailing.

Sutton Lake

A 1,440-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Elk River in Braxton County, with several campgrounds, quiet coves and the dam that creates the Elk tailwater fishery below.

Burnsville Lake

A 968-acre Corps reservoir on the Little Kanawha with the Bulltown Historic Area on its shore — Civil War earthworks, a preserved farmstead and a well-regarded campground.

Holly River State Park

West Virginia's second-largest state park at 8,101 acres, in a narrow valley of hemlock and hardwood with waterfalls, cabins and a rugged trail network.

Cedar Creek State Park

A 2,483-acre park in Gilmer County with three small fishing lakes, a campground and a network of easy trails.

Cacapon Resort State Park

6,000 acres on Cacapon Mountain near Berkeley Springs, with a lodge, a Robert Trent Jones golf course, a lake beach and a trail system climbing to the 2,300-foot ridge.

Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area

Nearly 23,000 acres on Sleepy Creek Mountain — the largest WMA in the Eastern Panhandle, with a 205-acre lake, primitive camping, hunting, and a long ridge trail system.

Trout Pond Recreation Area

Home to the only natural lake in West Virginia — a small sinkhole pond in the George Washington National Forest section of Hardy County, alongside the larger man-made Rockcliff Lake, a campground and trails into the Lost River State Forest country..

North Bend Rail Trail

Seventy-two miles on the old Baltimore & Ohio grade from Wolf Summit to Parkersburg, passing through 13 tunnels and over dozens of bridges — the longest tunnel run of any rail-trail in the region and part of the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail.

North Bend State Park

A 1,405-acre park on a horseshoe bend of the North Fork of the Hughes River, with a lodge, cabins, campgrounds, a 305-acre lake nearby and direct access to the North Bend Rail Trail.

Mountwood Park

A county park outside Parkersburg with a 50-acre lake and one of the better mountain bike trail networks in the western half of the state, plus camping, disc golf and the site of the old Volcano oil town..

Kanawha State Forest

9,300 acres of steep, wooded hollow just fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston, with more than 25 miles of trails, a well-known mountain bike network, a swimming pool, campground and some of the best spring warbler birding in the state.

Beech Fork State Park

A 3,981-acre park around a 720-acre Corps reservoir near Huntington, with one of the largest campgrounds in the state park system, good bass fishing and easy trails.

Chief Logan State Park

A 4,000-acre park in Logan County with a wildlife exhibit, trails through reclaimed coal country and an outdoor amphitheatre.

East Lynn Lake

A 1,005-acre Corps reservoir in Wayne County with a strong bass and crappie fishery, a large wildlife management area around it and very little traffic.

Tomlinson Run State Park

The northernmost park in the system, in Hancock County at the tip of the Northern Panhandle.

Bluestone State Park

On the shore of Bluestone Lake, the second-largest body of water in West Virginia, at the point where the Bluestone River meets the New.

Camp Creek State Park & Forest

An unusual pairing of a small developed park inside a much larger state forest in Mercer County, with two waterfalls on Camp Creek, mountain bike and equestrian trails, and camping.

Panther State Forest

Deep in McDowell County, one of the most remote units in the system, with a small campground, a swimming pool and trails through steep hardwood in the heart of the southern coalfields.

Watters Smith Memorial State Park

A preserved nineteenth-century homestead in Harrison County with a museum, farm buildings, a swimming pool and quiet woodland trails.

Cabwaylingo State Forest

A large, quiet forest in Wayne County named for the four counties it borders, with CCC-built cabins, a campground and a fire tower.

Greenbrier State Forest

Just outside White Sulphur Springs, adjoining the Monongahela National Forest, with cabins, a campground, a swimming pool and trails climbing Kate's Mountain.

Canaan Valley Resort State Park

The state's only resort park with lift-served downhill skiing, plus a lodge, cabins, a golf course, snow tubing and cross-country trails, sitting on the floor of Canaan Valley beside the national wildlife refuge..

Oglebay Resort

A municipal resort park in Wheeling with multiple public golf courses, including the Speidel Course designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr.

Greenbrier River Trail End to End

Seventy-eight miles, thirty-five bridges, two tunnels and a gradient under one percent.

Elk River Fly Fishing Weekend

Cold tailwater below Sutton Dam holding wild browns, a sulphur hatch worth planning around, and smallmouth downstream when the trout water gets busy.