July 4, 2012 -- Hills

New River Gorge in southeastern West Virginia was our destination today. The drive down was quite beautiful--through the forested, rolling hills of West Virginia. And the day was going to be another hot, humid one, with temps in the 90s and humidity in the high 60% range. It took about 3 1/2 hours to reach our first stopping spot, the northern visitor center of the New River Gorge National River Park.

We stopped at the northern visitor center to the park, hoping to use the rest rooms, and take a small hike to an area where you can view the New River Gorge Bridge. Unfortunately, when we approached the visitor center, we discovered that it was closed. Violent storms raced through this area on Saturday leaving 50% of the state without power. Since there were few people there, we had no trouble using the local shrubbery in lieu of formal facilities. Thank God for tissues and hand spray. We then took the path down to the viewing platform for the bridge.

New River

The new River Gorge bridge is one of the longest steel single arch bridges in the world. It is the 5th highest vehicular bridge in the world, and the 3rd highest in the Americas. Set in the lovely West Virginia hills, it is impressive.

We then headed down to the southern terminus of the park at Grandview. I had to laugh when the GPS told us to take a right turn on "road" to access it. Again, the visitor center had no power, and was closed. We set off down a 3 mile round trip trail that takes you along the edge of the gorge. Trees were all deciduous, and much of the understory was old growth rhododendron that had recently finished flowering. It must have been quite a beautiful sight in full bloom. Occasionally along the trail, there were openings in the forest to see the river gorge below. We finally decided to leave the trail and walk up the road toward trail end. There we saw downed trees that had fallen on the walkway and destroyed it. The views were lovely -- looking out to the misty hills and down to the river.

As usual, by now my head and shoulders were soaking wet from sweat. Although the walk was not particularly difficult, it was just extremely warm and humid out. So our next move was to head to the hotel in Beckley where we had a couple of beers, and showered. After dinner, we headed over to the Beckley fireworks display. I must admit, it wasn't up to par with the Harrisville, PA show from a couple of years ago, even though Beckley has 5 times the population (17,000). But Harrisville was pure Americana, and Beckley feels more urban.

On tap: Great Smoky Mountain National Park.