Happy Sunday everyone! We're having a lazy Sunday which means studying, blogging and lots of movies. After our small taste of adventure to Niagara Falls, we were eager for more. So we immediately starting planning a weekend getaway in August. We contemplated going to the beach, but soon realized that was far too expensive for our college student budgets.
After some research (mainly done by Stacey), we came across an area in West Virginia known as the New River Gorge. Stacey discovered that you can camp for free at different locations along the New River!
This area is particularly iconic because of the New River Gorge Bridge which helps travelers cross over the New River via Route 19. The bridge itself is 876 feet above the rapids below and 3,030 feet long. On the North end of the bridge, there is a visitors center where you can take a steep walk down many steps (we counted, but I don't remember how many..oops!). Down these steps, you'll reach one side of the steep gorge where there is beautiful access to the bridge and the valley beyond.
Prior to the bridge opening in 1977, travelers would have to drive down a steep and windy road known as Fayette Station Road where they would cross a small bridge (pictured below) and then make their way back up the windy road to US 19. Cassandra included this drive in our travels because it made the drive more scenic and historic.
So back to our trip...we got up super early and left Pittsburgh with excitement and curiosity for the adventures ahead. Our first stop was at Cassandra's house to gather the camping supplies and strategically pack the car. From there, we drove to Laurel Caverns Park in Farmington, PA. Since we arrived fairly early and it was a weekday, we were fortunate to be the only three on our guided tour through the cavernous mountain. It was really fun and we have full intentions of making the trip back to do the lower caving tour in which they require hiking boots, long pants, helmets and headlamps.
Our next stop was at the West Virginia Botanic Garden, which really wasn't what quite what we expected. With construction in progress, we all agreed that it had the potential of being something great in the future. For now, it served as a nice place for us to enjoy our packed sandwiches and other snacks for lunch.
We made our way through West Virginia, with a quick stop at the dollar store for batteries and Sheetz for more snacks. I feel it necessary to include that we screamed in excitement at every Sheetz we passed (crazy western Pennsylvanians). We stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge overlook and made our way down (and up!) Fayette Station Road.
Little did we know, we were still a little over an hour from where we would be sleeping for the next two nights. After a winding drive up and down the mountains we finally found ourselves at Glade Creek Road--a very (very) long gravel road in which there are two campgrounds: Grandview Sandbar and Glade Creek. We chose the first one because the restrooms (although just latrines) where in working order there.
It was truly beautiful there. Completely engulfed in nature and with no cellphone service, we were excited for the days ahead. To hear more about our adventures in West Virginia, keep a look out for Part II later in the week.
Laurel Caverns
New River Gorge Bridge Overlook
Fayette Station Road
Fayette Station Bridge
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