West Virginia - Day 8
- nacaruso3
- Sep 13
- 4 min read
13-Aug-2025
Day 8 of my West Virginia Adventure. It was raining this morning! I did come prepared with rain ponchos, but the weather has been so beautiful so far, that I was hoping to get through the trip with no rain. I wasn’t sure how long it would last, so I set off in the rain. My first stop was the swing at Babcock State Park which was right by the Glad Creek Grist Mill. The sign outside the mill said that it was open, but it wasn’t. The rain stopped as I was leaving (yay) and I drove to Gauley Bridge and then to Cathedral Falls, which was really more of a trickle... even after the rain this morning. My next stop was the New River Gorge Bridge. I got information at the visitor center about a drive to get some good pictures of the bridge, but they said that a tree had fallen earlier in the day, the road would be closed for a couple hours. I walked to the Lower Overlook where I had a great view of the bridge. While I was there, a bald eagle flew by, but I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture.
My next swing was at Summerville Lake State Park which interestingly enough was not by a lake!! After Summerville Lake, I went to Glade Creek Falls and then to the Beckley Coal Mine Tour. I got there with over half an hour until the next tour, so I had plenty of time to browse the museum upstairs. The tour guide was named Don, and he was great! He gave us a great history of the coal mine camps and the day-to-day life of a coal miner. He also sang some traditional coal miner songs. After the tour, I headed to Little Whitestick Falls and Cranberry Creek Cascades. I was able to park in one place and walk between these two falls.
My next swing was at the Resort at Glade Springs. On the way to where the map was taking me, I saw a little area to park near a lake and thought that would have been a great spot for the swing, but I didn’t see the swing, so I continued to where the map was taking me. It was a gated community. When I got to the gate and explained to the security guard that I just wanted a picture with the swing, he told me that I had already passed it. Turns out, it was where I thought it was, but behind a little boathouse, so I couldn’t see it from the road. I think that West Virginia should invest in some Almost Heaven Swing signs!! While I was talking pictures at this swing, a young couple was approaching to get their picture on the swing. We ended up chatting and talking about the waterfalls on the waterfall trail. They had also tried to go to Coonskin Grotto and saw nothing. They showed me a video of Cathedral Falls (the trickle that I saw earlier today). They went there in July and there was a TON of water when they were there. I guess August may not be the best time of year to be chasing waterfalls (cue Destiny’s Child).
We also talked about the swings (they had visited quite a few) and I told them that my next stop was the swing at Tater Hill and the road to get there. They asked if I had a truck. I told them that I had an Outback and they told me that I should be fine with that. They were nice enough to check the route that I was planning to take to get there (I guess from one direction, you’d need an ATV but from another direction, you can get there in a regular vehicle. I drove to Tater Hill and they weren’t wrong about those roads!! I honestly have no idea what I would have done if someone had been coming in the other direction because I could barely fit my car on the road! Fortunately, I passed nobody on the way there or back, so I was able to get to the swing with no traffic issues.
When I was done with my swings, I drove out to the Clearfork Rail Trail Waterfall. Another long and winding road with no reception along the way. I got all the way there and there was a big sign with a trail going in both directions, but no indication as to which direction the waterfall was. It was approaching dark, and I didn’t feel like getting lost in an area where there was no reception, so I headed back to the hotel. I wish I had known the situation ahead of time. I could have saved myself about an hour and a half of driving.
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