West Virginia - Day 4
- nacaruso3
- Sep 9
- 3 min read
09-Aug-2025
Day 4 of my West Virginia Adventure. After three nights in Elkins, it’s time to move on. I was originally going to spend one night in Charleston, but I want to do a salt tour, and they’re closed on Sundays, so I’ll have to rearrange the order of things and stay in Charleston for two nights. First stop today was Philippi Covered Bridge. The swing was on the OTHER side of the bridge from where the map took me, but at least I was close! Next stop was Tygart State Park. This time, the map had me going farther through the park, but I happened to see it as I was driving. This swing was right outside the visitor center, so I’m not quite sure why they couldn’t have just plotted the visitor center as the address. Next stop was Valley Falls State Park where the swing was about ¾ of a mile closer than the map had me going. Ah, West Virginia and your quirky directions.
Before hitting the next swing, I stopped at Appalachian Glass. So many glass-blown Christmas Ornaments. I bought a blue football (b/c… well… those who know me will understand), some windchimes as gifts, and my second jigsaw puzzle of the trip (I bought the first one at Blackwater Falls). My next swing was at Stonewall Resort State Park. Once I made it to the parking lot, I had to walk all the way around the building and past the pool to get to the swing. Maybe if I had walked around the other side of the building it would have been a shorter walk? It really would have been nice to have signs telling you where the swing was once you got close. After Stonewall Resort, I stopped at Upper and Lower Falls (part of my waterfall trail side trip). From there, I tried to find Falls Mill falls, but when I got to where the map took me, there was NOTHING there!! I had no signal, so I couldn’t even try to figure out how close I was. Oh, well… off to my next swing at Gassaway Depot. This swing was EXACTLY where the map said it would be!! What a refreshing change! My last swing before heading to the hotel was Rail Trail Explorers. The directions brought me to the parking lot and the swing was just past the building, so… pretty much where it was supposed to be.
There was still light when I got to the hotel, so I knew that I could squeeze in the two swings that were in Charleston and then grab some dinner. The first one was at the Capitol Building (but the furthest side of the building from where the parking lot was, of course). The next one was on the campus of the University of Charleston, which was just over the river from the Capitol Building. Once I had finished with the swings, I headed to a West Virginia owned pizza place that the woman at the hotel had recommended. Clearly, this person did not know what real pizza is!! The sauce tasted like canned sauce and the pizza dough was way undercooked. Living outside of NY for 30+ years has made me more tolerant to variations of pizza, but this just didn’t cut it!!
To sum up my day, I did a LOT of driving (from Elkins to Charleston, but nowhere near a direct route) and made it to EIGHT swings, bringing my count to 14 so far.
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