New River is one of the oldest rivers in the country, and it continues to carve the deepest and longest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains. In southern West Virginia, New River Gorge National Park contains 53 miles of the river from Bluestone Dam to Hawk’s Nest Lake.
The park boasts hiking, biking, rock climbing, whitewater rafting, canoeing, fishing, camping, picnicking, and more. Over 100 miles of hiking and biking trails are spread across the park, ranging from 0.25 to 7 miles in length.
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
2025 Price: Free
Due to its length, the park has four visitor centers: Canyon Rim, Thurmond Depot, Grandview, and Sandstone. Grandview and Thurmond Depot are seasonal visitor centers, open from Memorial Day through Labor Day. During my Memorial Day weekend visit, I focused on Canyon Rim and Grandview.
Canyon Rim Visitor Center
Canyon Rim is the primary spot for most visitors as it has a short boardwalk which leads to two observation decks for the span arch bridge.
Completed in 1977, New River Gorge Bridge is the longest steel span in the western hemisphere (3,030 feet) and the third highest bridge (876 feet) in the U.S.
An easy 0.1-mile universally accessible boardwalk leads to the upper overlook.
For a better view (in my opinion), I descended 178 steps to the lower overlook. From this lower platform, I also captured beautiful views of the river and gorge.
Additional Bridge Views
For other views of the bridge, Long Point Trail and Fayette Station Road are great options.
Visitors can walk underneath the bridge on the maintenance catwalk by taking a Bridge Walk tour. The only day pedestrians can walk across the bridge is the third Saturday of October, called Bridge Day. Bridge Day is the largest single-day festival in West Virgina.
Grandview Visitor Center
The Grandview area has six miles of hiking trails ranging from easy to strenuous.
Grandview Main Overlook
There is an accessible path to the main overlook for one of the “grandest” views in the park. Grandview sits 1,400 feet above the New River, making it the highest point top-to-bottom in the park.
From Grandview, New River takes a horseshoe bend around War Ridge, also known as Backus Mountain. This panorama is incredible! From the overlook you can see the gorge, the Allegheny Plateau, and part of the Appalachian Highlands.
CSX railway wraps around the mountain. To the left of the overlook, I saw the railyard at Quinnimont, the first town to ship coal from the gorge.
To the right, the remnants of the Glade Creek bridge piers are visible in the distance.
North Overlook
Many visitors walk to the Main Overlook and then leave or perhaps hike a shorter trail such as Tunnel Trail. However, after a short walk on the Grandview Rim Trail, you can see more lovely views of the river and landscape. On my visit, there were only two other small groups at North Overlook.
Grandview Rim Trail
Rim Trail is the longest trail at Grandview at 1.6-miles one way. The moderate path winds through the forest along the gorge rim. It starts on the easy side of moderate and gradually gets more difficult with steeper sections. There are dozens of stairs to the Turkey Spur Overlook at the end.
Mountain laurel was in bloom!
Several overlooks provide new angles of the river on the way to North Overlook.
Near Turkey Spur Overlook, the Rim Trail hugs massive rock walls.
I had to climb 150 steps to the three wooden overlooks at Turkey Spur.
For those looking for an accessible overlook, below is the view from the Turkey Spur parking lot.
Along the trail I saw a chipmunk, black-throated green warblers, blue-headed vireos, eastern wood-pewees, ovenbirds, and white-breasted nuthatches.
Note: As I visited during an extremely busy holiday weekend, I do recommend the Rim Trail as an alternative to the more popular Long Point and Endless Wall trails. There was absolutely no parking available for those hikes, and the Rim Trail wasn’t very crowded, especially after North Overlook.
Know Before You Go
New River Gorge National Park is unlike traditional national parks. Most attractions are not connected cleanly by park roads. I had to jump out onto highways and drive 30 minutes to an hour between sections.
Several roads are narrow with little passing room. Although the website notes that parking along the road is prohibited, people still did during my visit which made the narrow roads harder to navigate.
I went white-water rafting three times on the New River when I was young and adventurous…