“I don’t know where I want to go or even if I feel up to hiking.”
“Me either”
“So let’s just get in the car and see where we end up.

We ended up at Otter Creek!

I’d actually wanted to hike yesterday, but forgot there is always more snow at Coopers Rock than there is in Morgantown, so I didn’t think to grab snowshoes (in my defense, we haven’t been able to use them since we bought them).

We walked around for awhile, but walking through the deep snow ended up making my foot ache, so we left without a nice long hike, and went for a scenic drive instead, stopping at Valley Falls.

We did walk completely around the reservoir.

Valley Falls we just wandered around and avoided the three other small groups who were there (on group was a HS senior photo shoot, which: good for her!

Saturday we headed back to the Canaan area–mostly because it’s a relatively short drive with a ton of wilderness.

We went back up to Canaan Loop road and did a loop of Fire trails and the Plantation trail.

I did slide into a puddle, but not this one.

Luckily, although a little water got into my boots, my feet stayed dry.

These are actually from two weeks ago. I was just to lazy to post them.

We’d decided to hike around the Blackwater Canyon. Nothing strenuous, but I knew there would be some pretty views and that we would be unlike to see other people.

When they tell you the road isn’t suitable for passenger vehicles, they really do mean it.

We parked before the road completely degraded and walked to the Allegheny / Canyon Rim Trail.

Just past the Canyon Rim Trail, if you watch the side of the road you’ll find a short trail out to the overlook, where you can see into the Blackwater Canyon.

You can hear the creek running below, but even with the leaves fallen could not catch sight of it.

Between the overlook and Canyon Rim Trailhead you can look for another side trail to a waterfall.

This is a scramble and not recommended for all users.

But it is lovely.

The canyon rim trail itself has several creek crossings at the start, but is then wooded / rhododendron thickets.

It was chilly, but a gorgeous (and easy) hike.

Forgot to post these pictures from the first weekend we had our car back.

We went to Davis and decided to take the Blackwater River Trail at Canaan, and a trail we hadn’t walked before at Blackwater Falls.

Canaan Valley Start Park, Blackwater River Trail

Blackwater Falls State Park, River Road Trail, Yellow Birch Trail

We left town early (skipping the Farmers Market) to try and beat some of the crowds. We did ok at Babcock, since it wasn’t bad when we arrived but starting to get crazy by the time we left.

A debate was had over whether or not this was a beaver.

The water wheel was turning!

On the hope that there was still some color (there wasn’t) we headed south to New River Gorge.

We’d considered hiking Endless Wall trail–and then saw cars parked alongside the road. So after regrouping we headed to Nuttallburg, which we hadn’t done before.

Nuttallburg is an abandoned mining town, and was full of lots of abandoned equipment.

An accident led us to seek a detour which led us to drive past Stauffer’s Marsh Preserve. Since we were mostly wandering, we decided to stop.

Stauffer’s Marsh Preserve is a small preserve, but it was a nice walk.

They day was overcast and gray, which is why we didn’t have any specific hiking plans, so little color came out in the pictures.

With rain forecast across the state, we decided to head to the Eastern panhandle to hit an orchard, and then see where we ended up.

An accident that stopped traffic led us to seek an alternate route, and that led us to visit two new places.

We literally did a three-point turn in the road upon seeing the sign for Sleepy Creek Lake after we ended up driving through the Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area.

We had no idea what to expect, and were quite shocked to discover that Sleepy Creek WMA is huge (22,928 acres). Despite the sky being overcast, it was a gorgeous drive.

Since it’s hunting season, we didn’t even attempt a hike (since we had no safety gear) but did walk across the dam.

Saturday’s hike was somewhat decided on-the-fly. We knew we were going to stop at Valley Falls, but not sure where we wanted to go from there.

We’d discussed Cathedral, as well as the Davis / Canaan area, but decided that hiking the Otter Creek trail would be gorgeous if the leaf color was good.

It was and it was.

The WV Tourism site claimed that Valley Falls State Park would be good to visit for leaf color, so we took an extra scenic route and made a quick stop at Valle Falls Saturday morning.

The color was a little disappointing, but the drive along 310 was quite lovely.

Wednesday we took the afternoon often and headed out to Coopers Rock to see the leaves and for a midweek hike.

We walked to the overlook, then hiked the Rhododendron and Mont Chateau trails (my favorites).

A fair amount of color, but it was really dry.

At the Overlook.

Even middle of the day on a Wednesday there were quite a few people there.

Normally this spot is inaccessible unless you’re willing to get wet up to your knees, and you still have to be careful because the water rushes through this spot. Instead there was a still pool and just a trickle of water.

Since the weather wasn’t great, we headed over to the Canaan Wildlife Refuge and Beale Trails, because I wanted to get down to the river.

First you walk through fields before you head down the hills, through the woods, to the river.

Despite the gentle rain, it was a lovely walk.