You should definitely check out the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area if you’re in Pocahontas County, WV. One of West Virginia’s largest wetlands, this 750-acre area features open bogs, with the surrounding moutains — Black, Cranberry and Kennison — creating a natural bowl. With an elevation of 3400 feet, the Glades resemble an Artic tundra, only […]
Canaan Valley
Table Rock Hike in Monongahela National Forest
What’s a little mud when the view is this? Table Rock is a massive rock outcropping on the western side of Canaan Mountain, overlooking the Dry Fork and Cheat River valleys. The hike out to it will carry you through a hardwood forest as well as rhododendron thickets; it’s unlikely you’ll encounter anyone else, so […]
Let the Autumn Colors Inspire You to Daytrip Too!
We would see amazing things if we could learn to be travelers in our own neighborhoods, Henry David Thoreau said. Fall is a great time to explore your own neighborhood and see it with new eyes. Grab a camera and take yourself out for a fun afternoon daytrip! One of my favorite things to do […]
It’s All Downhill: the Blackwater Canyon Trail
The Blackwater Canyon Railtrail is an extension of the 35-mile Allegheny Highlands Railtrail, connecting to it in Hendricks, WV, and running through the gorge to Thomas. The railtrail is about 3 hours from Washington DC, but it’s a destination trail and worth the drive or planning a stay in Canaan Valley. You really need to […]
Greeting the Morning Sun at Bear Rocks
How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! — environmentalist and author, John Muir We got up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning to take the long and somewhat nerve-wracking drive up Laneville Road from Canaan Valley, where we were staying just off of Route 32 in a rental cabin, to […]
Appreciating the Beauty of the Blackwater River
We arrived for our holiday weekend in Canaan Valley a few hours earlier. We unpacked the car and get settled into the cabin. The kids decided to hang out there, rather than come along with us as we re-explored Davis and traveled down memory lane a bit. The view from our cabin across Canaan Valley. […]
Back to Blackwater Falls
Canaan Valley draws us frequently. We’ve been going up there as a family for almost a decade. It is, frankly, one of my favorite places, and I usually find a weekend or two every year to go back and visit, maybe go on a hike or two, or three. I almost always take time to […]
Leaf Peeping in Dolly Sods Wilderness
Sometimes the beauty of Dolly Sods Wilderness Area is subtle, sometimes breathtaking. Dolly Sods also serves as an abject lesson for us: it was the scene of one of the worst ecological disasters in the 20th century. Despite that, Dolly Sods has rebounded over the past century and now is truly one of the most […]