Today we are making a side-trip to the newest U.S. national park, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. We are in Virginia with our daughter, Becky’s parents, Poppa and Gigi, her Uncle Bob and Paul’s mom, Grandma. And we’re only about 3 hours away from the newest national park in West Virginia. We’re too close to not check off another national park off our list! So, we’ve planned a day exploring New River Gorge National Park!
Planning New River Gorge National Park
The most recognizable feature of the New River Gorge National Park is the New River Gorge Bridge. It is the longest steel span in the western hemisphere and one of the most photographed places in West Virginia. And one of the best places to view it is at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. So, we will plan to start there. We are staying at Massanutten Resort near Shenandoah National Park in Virginia over 3 hours away. If we leave early we should be able to get to the visitor center before noon.
Since we’ll be arriving around lunch time, we will pack our cooler and plan to have a picnic. So, we’ll plan to check out the visitor center, have a picnic and check out the views of the bridge. After that we will take the old way across the New River down Fayette Station Road. Their website says it could takes 40 minutes without stopping so we plan for almost 3 hours in this area. That still gives us some time to check out another site.
Since the Thurmond and Grandview visitor centers are closed until the summer, we decide to go Sandstone Falls. Not only is their visitor center now open, but it’s the largest waterfall on the New River. However, the visitor center is an hour from Fayette Station Road. And from the visitor center we’ll drive the scenic road to the boardwalk trail at the falls. What makes this route great is once back from the falls, we can easily go back via I-64 to Virginia. Besides the trip to and from Sandstone Falls, the route is basically a triangle around the park. To learn more about the 63rd national park, click New River Gorge National Park and Preserve (nps.gov).
Canyon Rim Visitor Center in New River Gorge National Park
The easy drive from Virginia is mostly on I-64 from Lexington into West Virginia. We continue on I-64 and exit on US-60 West until US-19 South. We then exit at Visitor Center Road just before the New River Bridge. After leaving early and stopping once, we get to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center as planned, right before noon. We find parking up close and walk toward the visitor center. The restrooms are located in front on the right on the way in.
Once inside, there is a table on the left with passport stamps and maps. The maps have details about the Fayette Station Road Tour we want to do after lunch, so we grab some. Just past is a small gift shop and a couple rangers doing double duty. They manage the shop and are there to answer questions. And just pass them is a museum you can walk through. The museum has a great collection of the history of the park and the area. You can see a lot of information and interesting pieces on display from the rich coal and railroad history here.
Also, pass the museum are some large windows where we get our first glimpse of the New River Gorge. There is a door with an outside area where you can get better views of the river and gorge. They have a covered picnic area around the corner too. But it’s a little cool here and we saw some tables outside that looked better. Back inside, we also get our first glimpse of the New River Gorge Bridge. These views are obstructed, but we plan to take the boardwalk to better views after lunch.
Canyon Rim Picnic Area
There are many picnic tables around the visitor center. But, we see an area off to the right that looks perfect. This open area has 2 picnic tables put together under a tree next to a paved walkway. So, we grab our cooler and set-up under the tree.
After almost an hour here, we are ready for lunch. We enjoy eating outside on this beautiful day. The trees and wildflowers are blooming and the weather is great.
Just past our picnic tables, the paved walkway goes through the field past beautiful dogwoods and other trees. At the end is an observation platform at the top of the bridge. There is a sign here that provides interesting information about the bridge and its construction.
Leaving the platform, there is a small trail to the right called the Bridge Walk Trail. It is very steep going down below the bridge. The trail information says you can walk under the bridge. However, the walkway to cross under the bridge has a gate. It doesn’t look open so we climb back up and join the others back at the picnic tables. However, there are boardwalks to get better views of the bridge also really close.
Canyon Rim Boardwalk
From our picnic area, we can see the start of a boardwalk trail. And unlike the other trail, this boardwalk is fully accessible to the 1st viewing point. So, we all pack-up our lunch and head to the boardwalk. To the 1st viewing point is an easy 0.1 mile walk and offers better views of the New River Gorge Bridge.
The sign here looks just like the other one we saw at the top of the bridge. However, from here we can see much more of the steel structure. But there are steps to see even more. However, the older folks decide to sit on some benches and stay here. So, we go with our daughter down the steps. Walking down is easy, but there are 178 steps to climb back up.
At the bottom we make it to the end where we do have even closer views of the bridge. We get great views of the New River Gorge to our left and the bridge to our right. We can even see Fayette Station Road below us, our next stop. But now we have to take the 178 steps back up. It’s a lot of steps and not easy, but we take our time before we meet back up with the others.
Fayette Station Road
Once we all get back to our car at the visitor center, we head toward Fayette Station Road. Before the New River Gorge Bridge was built, this was the only way to the other side of the gorge. What once took 40-45 minutes, now can be done in a minute going over the new bridge. But the old way seems more exciting. So we leave the visitor center to head back to the main highway. We then exit at the first right onto Landing-Edmond Road. After just a couple minutes, we turn right onto Fayette Station Road.
The map we got at the visitor center offers a QR code for a free audio tour. And the first point on the tour starts shortly after getting on the road. We are able to plug it into our car so everyone can hear. You basically press play at each point, then pause until you get to the next point, and so on.
Fayette Station Road actually crosses under the New River Gorge Bridge twice on this side and once on the other side. And shortly after starting we pull off underneath the bridge for some views underneath. Once back in the car, we continue to listen to the audio tour at each point. After winding down to the bottom of the gorge, we have to cross another bridge to the other side.
The Fayette Station Bridge at the bottom was reconstructed and reopened in 1998. This one lane bridge is just past the railroad tracks providing passage across the river. Much of Fayette Station Road is one-way so you won’t have to worry about oncoming traffic here. Once to the other side, we find a parking lot.
Fayette Station Parking Area
Once over the Fayette Station Bridge, we turn right and go over a little bridge into the Fayette Station parking area. This dirt parking lot has plenty of spaces and restrooms are also here. We get out and see a sign for Public Boater Access. We follow it as we walk down toward the river. And to our surprise, we’ve found the best view of the New River Gorge Bridge.
At the end of the boat ramp, we can see straight up the river to the bridge. From here you really get a great view from river level of the large bridge. It also looks like this is the starting or ending point for river rafting trips in the warmer months. After a few minutes we head back. On the way back to the car Becky takes a work call. It’s hard to get away sometimes, even here.
Once back in the car, we see another parking lot on our left when exiting. This is a smaller parking lot but allows good access to view the river. We then get in the car continuing on Fayette Station Road under a railroad bridge. On the way we see some water trickling down the side until the road has a sharp turn. Once we make the turn we climb up and pass the New River Bridge once again. Eventually we make it back to US-19 on the other side of the New River from the visitor center. And it’s right about 3:00PM and we’ve spent just over 3 hours in this section of the park. Now we are ready to venture to our next section of New River Gorge National Park.
Sandstone Visitor Center and Area
Sandstone Visitor Center is an hour away from the end of Fayette Station Road. And once back on US-19 South we are driving outside the park. The park encompasses a section of the New River Gorge and its river. But by car, you have to take highways outside the park to the 4 main areas. And off US-19 is the turn to go towards Thurmond, but we stop for gas off US-19 instead. We then exit off US-19 onto I-64 towards the turn for Grandview. But we are headed to the last of the 4 main sections of the park, Sandstone Falls. We arrive at the Sandstone Visitor Center just after 4:00PM.
We love to stop at visitor centers for multiple reasons and Sandstone Visitor Center has it all. Not only does Becky get more stamps for her National Parks passport, but has interactive interpretive exhibits. The visitor center also has a 12-minute video which is different from Canyon Rim. They also have a small gift shop and restrooms outside. But they also have very knowledgeable park rangers. They give us directions to Sandstone Falls and stops along the way.
Sandstone Falls Area Overlooks
The drive to Sandstone Falls is over 30 minutes from the visitor center. That’s because you have to drive over 10 miles down the river to the town of Hinton. In Hinton, you will cross a bridge and then journey back up the other side of the river to the falls. However there are 2 overlooks on the way to Hinton. The first is the Sandstone Falls Overlook just 7 minutes away.
We turn into the pull-off for the overlook and jump out with our daughter. From the parking spot, you can take the short gravel trail down to a scenic overlook. From here we can see all of Sandstone Falls which spans 1500 feet wide across the river. This short hike is fairly easy but steep especially coming back. And just 3 minutes down the road is the Brooks Overlook.
The park ranger told us we could see a bald eagle’s nest here and they have new hatchlings. So we pull off into the overlook parking area overlooking Brooks Island. From here we can see a large nest at the end of the island closest to us. We try to spot eagles but cannot find any. But the rangers told us of another spot on the other side with a closer view. Once we leave we cross the bridge in Hinton to the other side and drive up New River Road. We park at the stop for a closer view of the nest but still can’t see the eagles. So, we continue our drive to the boardwalk.
Sandstone Falls in New River Gorge National Park
We turn sharply into the dirt parking lot for Sandstone Falls and park near the restrooms. Here is where the Sandstone Falls Boardwalk trail begins. This easy trail is 0.4 miles round trip to the largest waterfall on the New River. This handicap accessible boardwalk crosses 2 bridges leading to islands with observation decks of the falls. And from the beginning we get a great view of the falls.
We all go at our own pace on the boardwalk over the bridges and across the islands. Toward the end is stairs down from the boardwalk where our daughter wants to go to throw rocks in the river. And the short trail ends at an observation deck with more great views of the falls.
Though Sandstone Falls only drops 10-25 feet, it is the widest waterfall we’ve ever seen. And after 6:00PM we need to head back. We still have over 3 hours to get back to our resort in Virginia. But first we have to take New River Road back to the bridge to Hinton, then back to I-64. From there, it’s smooth sailing.
Summary of New River Gorge National Park
We left Virginia early to drive over 3 hours to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. The Canyon Rim Visitor Center was our first stop where we got our first glimpse of the New River Gorge. As well as our first glimpse of the iconic New River Gorge Bridge. After checking out the visitor center, we had a picnic before walking the Canyon Rim Boardwalk Trail. We then took the auto tour down old Fayette Station Road stopping at points along the way. After spending over 3 hours in the section of the park, we drove to the Sandstone Falls area. We stopped at the Sandstone Visitor Center and a few overlooks before ending at the Sandstone Falls Boardwalk. By the time we got back to our resort after 9:00PM, it had been a long, but nice day.
We had a great day spending time in 2 separate sections of the newest U.S. national park. The Canyon Rim area is a great place to start with great views of the New River Gorge Bridge. And though we spent a lot of time in the car today, a highlight was Fayette Station Road. We had great views of the bridge from below and enjoyed the points along the scenic drive. And getting to see the very wide Sandstone Falls was a bonus. It did feel kind of weird having to drive outside the park to get to different areas of the park though. And even if the other main 2 areas, Thurmond and Grandview, were totally open, we wouldn’t have had time today. But there’s always next time. And if ever near Shenandoah National Park, we would recommend taking a side-trip to New River Gorge National Park!