Canoeing

Eastern Panhandle

The Appalachian Trail crosses the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and runs roughly 24 miles through this region.

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.

Mid-Ohio Valley

The Ohio River corridor and the counties inland from it.

Bluestone National Scenic River

Ten miles of protected river in a deep, wooded gorge between Bluestone Lake and Pipestem — the least-visited National Park Service unit in West Virginia and the quietest.

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.

The Trough

A six-mile gorge on the South Branch of the Potomac between Romney and Moorefield with no road access — reachable only by boat or by the Potomac Eagle excursion train that runs alongside it.

Elk River

One of the finest and least-known trout fisheries in the Appalachians.

Cacapon River

One of the finest gentle canoe rivers in the East — clear, shallow, warm and slow, winding through farmland and forest with reliable smallmouth fishing and easy multi-day trips.

Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge

Twenty-two islands and several mainland tracts scattered along nearly 400 river miles of the Ohio, protecting some of the last relatively undisturbed island habitat on the river — critical for freshwater mussels, migratory birds and river-bottom forest.

Hughes River

Three forks — North, South and Middle — draining a landscape of narrow ridges and small farms in Ritchie and Wirt counties, giving quiet Class I canoe water and good smallmouth fishing with almost no other boats.

Coal River Water Trail

An organized water trail on the Big Coal, Little Coal and main-stem Coal rivers south of Charleston, with maintained access points, mapped mileages and signage — the product of sustained work by the Coal River Group to turn a working-class industrial river back into a recreation asset.

Greenbrier Valley Weekend

The most approachable region in the state: a rail-trail at under one percent grade, warm river paddling, a preserved eighteenth-century town, and limestone country with commercial show caves..

Eastern Panhandle Paddle & Hike

The closest real outdoors to Washington and Baltimore: warm rivers, the Appalachian Trail, and a spa town to finish in..