West Virginia - Day 5
- nacaruso3
- Sep 10, 2025
- 3 min read
10-Aug-2025
Day 5 of my West Virginia Adventure. Since I’m spending an extra night in Charleston, I’m going to hit a loop of swings that I was originally planning to do later in my trip. My first stop was Valley Park (not to be confused with Valley Falls Park. My next stop was Rotary Park. The directions mentioned that the swing was a short walk from the parking lot. Of course, there’s more than one parking lot, so you have to guess the right one. I’ve learned that if there are signs to an overlook, chances are the swing will be in that general direction. Once I found the swing, I decided to keep walking towards the overlook. I met a nice man named Phil who was happy to show me where the overlook was. Once I was done at Rotary Park, I headed to Hillbilly Hotdogs. They opened at 11. I got there at 11:05 and there was already a line! I had a West Virginia hot dog (chili sauce, mustard, onions, and coleslaw). It was much better than the West Virginia pizza that I had last night!!
Once I had eaten, I continued on to the swing at Tu-Endie-Wei State Park. I parked near the Mothman statue and then walked to the swing. This swing was at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawhs Rivers. Next, I drove to Parkersburg (somehow driving into Ohio and back into West Virginia was the fastest route to do this) where I took a ferry to Blennerhassett Island (where Aaron Burr moved to after his dual with Alexander Hamilton). I took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the island (which started right by the swing) and then hopped on the next ferry back to Parkersburg.
Next stop was Sportsman’s park in Wirt County. Fortunately, there were people around who knew where the swing was b/c there were several areas to park. A “short walk from the parking lot” isn’t a short walk if you’re not parked in the right place! From there, I went to Charles Fork Lake and then to Cedar Lakes, where the swing was “near the chapel”. I guess if you’re familiar with the park, that would be useful information!! This park also had the Historic Staats Mill Covered Bridge and the Casto Hole marker (which detailed the history of the conflict between Nicholas Casto and Elihugh Powers during the Civil War).
When I headed back to Charleston, I figured I had enough time to visit Coonskin Grotto, which was a waterfall that I had skipped yesterday because it was late. The park closed at 8:30, so I figured I had plenty of time. Of course, the Upper Park (where the Grotto is) closed at 7:30. I parked as close as possible at 7:12 and started walking towards the Grotto as quickly as possible. I got there and there was NO WATER at all!! I got back to my car at 7:19 and a park ranger was shooing me out of the park. Sheesh… I still have 11 minutes!!
Once I got back to the hotel, I started planning my route for tomorrow. It turns out that two of the swings are only accessible by ATV or UTV. Oh, geez. I guess I have to make some phone calls tomorrow to figure out how (if) I’ll be able to do that.
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