West Virginia - Day Two
- nacaruso3
- Sep 7
- 3 min read
07-Aug-2025
Day 2 of my West Virginia adventure. I started the day back-tracking since I had to drive to Elkins last night. First stop was Canaan Valley Resort State Park. Once again, the directions brought me to the hotel, but I should have gone towards the Golf Course (I wonder how many times someone at the hotel has to give directions). At least it was right off the road, so that was a quick stop. Next, I went to Blackwater Falls State Park. The swing was on the other side of the park from where the directions took me. I found a nice park ranger who gave me a map and showed me where it was. There were a couple of waterfalls on the waterfall trail (Elakalata Falls was actually a short walk from where the swing directions brought me). The walk to the swings and to Blackwater Falls wasn’t too long, and it was a beautiful day, so the walk was a good one.
Once I was done at Blackwater Falls, I drove to the Seneca Rocks observation area to take some pictures and then headed to Spruce Knob. I drove up a VERY long gravel road towards Seneca Creek Falls. When I got there, there were three men about to start off on a hike. I asked them if they knew how far it was to get to Seneca Creek Falls. It was FIVE MILES each way. Ok… so I’m not doing that!! I headed back down the gravel road and then up to the high point of Spruce Knob (the highest point in West Virginia - 4863 feet). It was a short walk from the parking lot to the observation area and I miraculously had enough reception to hop on a work call while I was there.
After Spruce Knob, I headed south and stopped at the Greenbank Observatory, home seven radio telescopes ranging from 14m-100m in diameter. I got there at 4:30 and of course the last shuttle tour left at 4, so I had to walk (over a mile each way) to see them. You weren’t allowed to have your cell phone on past a certain point, so I was only able to get a picture of the telescope that was closest to the parking lot. There were some deer hanging out along the way (couldn’t get pictures of them either), and I passed lots of locals walking their dogs along the path.
After the Observatory, I drove to Snowshoe Mountain. It was difficult to find parking b/c they were having an event there. I popped into a restaurant to ask where the swing was. The person I asked had no idea what I was talking about, but someone else overheard me and she walked me to the swing. I was pretty close to it, but at this point I had no confidence in finding a swing where it was supposed to be! I had some lemon crunch ice cream (delicious!) and then headed off to my next swing. I had to skip two waterfalls along the way b/c I was running out of daylight. Note to self – everything in WV will take longer than you think it will!
At Camp Pioneer, the swing was in front of the lake (when the map showed it as being behind the lake), but it didn’t take me long to figure that out. This was my last planned swing of the day, so I headed back to Elkins to try to find something to eat. I walked into a pizzeria at 8:50. They closed at 9 and had already finished cleaning up, so there was no pizza to be had. I asked if anything around was open later and my best option was an Applebee’s. Oh, well… I had to eat something other than the snacks in my car.
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