Fishing

Mountain Lakes

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

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.

Mid-Ohio Valley

The Ohio River corridor and the counties inland from it.

Sandstone Falls

The largest waterfall on the New River — not tall, but 1,500 feet wide, spilling across the full breadth of the river between islands at the point where the gorge begins to open.

Gauley River

The most celebrated whitewater in the eastern United States.

Lower New River

The commercial rafting heart of West Virginia: Class III–IV big-volume water through the deepest part of the gorge, with named rapids including Surprise, Upper and Lower Railroad, Double Z, Greyhound and Fayette Station under the bridge.

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.

Meadow River

Two things at once: an exceptional and demanding whitewater run, and one of the most significant new climbing developments in the eastern United States over the past decade, with hundreds of routes established on clean sandstone in a deep, quiet gorge.

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.

Hawks Nest State Park

A rim-top lodge above the Mill Creek arm of the New River Gorge with an aerial tram to a marina on the water.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cheat Canyon

One of the classic big-water runs of the East: roughly 11 miles of Class IV–V through a remote gorge below Albright, with named rapids including Big Nasty, Coliseum and Pete Morgan.

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.

Valley Falls State Park

A series of ledge drops on the Tygart Valley River near Fairmont, popular with photographers, picnickers and — at the right levels — playboaters.

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.

Cheat Lake

A long, narrow 1,730-acre impoundment of the Cheat River just east of Morgantown, with a shoreline rail-trail, boat access and the closest flatwater paddling and lakeside recreation to the city..

Elk River

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

Elk River Rail Trail

A developing rail-trail on the former Buffalo Creek & Gauley and Elk River Railroad grades, opening a long, remote corridor along the Elk between Gassaway and Clendenin.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shenandoah & Potomac Rivers

The Shenandoah's Staircase rapids above Harpers Ferry give Class I–III whitewater in a resort-town setting, while the Potomac below the confluence spreads wide and slow for tubing and flatwater.

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 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.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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.

Kanawha Falls

A wide ledge falls at Glen Ferris where the Gauley and New join to form the Kanawha — a well-known bank fishing spot for hybrid striped bass, walleye and catfish, with roadside access and a historic inn across the highway..

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.

Pinnacle Rock State Park

A small day-use park in Mercer County built around a jagged sandstone fin standing above the highway, with a stairway to the top and a view over the southern coalfields.

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.

Little Beaver State Park

A day-use park just off I-64 near Beckley with an 18-acre lake, an extensive trail network used for running and mountain biking, and easy access from the interstate.

Prickett's Fort State Park

A reconstructed 1774 frontier refuge fort at the confluence of Prickett's Creek and the Monongahela River, with living-history interpretation, a boat launch and a trailhead on the Mon River Rail-Trail system..

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.

Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area

A quiet 12,854-acre WMA in Mingo County built around a 29-acre lake, with primitive camping, warm-water fishing and public hunting in the southern coalfields..

Pipestem Resort Golf

An 18-hole course plus a par-3 layout at Pipestem Resort State Park above the Bluestone Canyon, with lodge accommodation on site and a par-3 course that suits beginners and short visits..

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.