We went to Canaan Valley State Park Sunday and Monday. As there was snow melt AND rain, it was really really muddy.

Luckily, we have waterproof boots.

Location: Canaan Valley State Park
Trail, Distance, Elevation
Blackwater Trail, 0.9 miles, 3262 – 3348 feet
Club Run Trail, 2.1 miles, 3369 – 3481 feet
Deer Run & Mill Run Trails, 2.3 miles, 3273 – 3336

Rocks! I like rocks!

The Blackwater River, meandering through Canaan Valley

Oh! Look! Wetlands!

Decaying machinery on the Mill Run Trail! (I love decaying machinery!)

We went back to the Blackwater River rail trail on Sunday, because I wanted to see both the old coke ovens and the falls along that section of the river (NOT in the park).

Location: Blackwater Canyon Rail Trail
Distance: 3.2 miles
Elevation: 2785 – 2971 feet

With most of the brush gone for the winter, we saw precisely how many coke ovens there had been–they stretched for a least half a mile on both sides of the trail

Falls along the Blackwater River (not the main falls)

Historic Coke Ovens

Some nature slowly taking back the coke ovens.

Several State Park lodges had a leap year special at the end of February: $29/person/night for Saturday and Sunday, and if you stayed both days, Monday night was free. We chose Blackwater Falls State Park, and stayed three nights. That gave us four days of hiking, which was AWESOME, although the weather being what it has, we didn’t get to snowshoe, since there wasn’t enough (or any, by Monday) snow.

Sadly, the GPS batteries were dead the first day, so I don’t have distances or elevations for Saturday’s hiking at Blackwater Falls (and that was the day we hiked the most there).

Location: Blackwater Falls State Park
Trails: Balanced Rock Trail, Lindy Point Trail, Pendleton Trace Trail, Elakala Trail, Red Spruce Trail, Water Tank Trail
Distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation: 3072 – 3221 feet

Elakala

Pendleton Trace

Lindy Point (at sunset, Sunday & Monday)

Blackwater Falls (Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday)

The weather Saturday was ridiculously warm–especially considering a week earlier we had temperatures with a negative wind chill.

The trails were of course quite muddy, but once we got off the Roadside Trail, things were fine. But because the well-traveled trails were so muddy and slushy, we ended up walking the road to Henry Clay Furnace trail, and once we came out at the reservoir, took the main road back.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Roadside (very very briefly), road to Henry Clay Furnace, Clay Furnace trail, Mont Chateau trail (partial), Clay Run trail, and main road
Distance: 7.9 miles
Elevation: 1652 – 2353 feet

There were a LOT of people at the forest.

Here is where I accidentally dropped my sunglasses into the creek.

I declined to jump in after them. Temperatures may have been in the 60s, but the water temperature was just above freezing.

Except for a few spots, the reservoir was still frozen, but it wasn’t going to stay that way for very long.

All in all, a beautiful day.

A handful of WV State Parks are having a $50/night in January special, so we took this opportunity to spend some more time at Twin Falls State Park.

Location: Twin Falls State Park
Trails: Huckleberry, Cliffside, and Falls Trails
Distance: 1.5, 3.0, 2.3 miles
Elevation: 2155-2449, 2005-2317, 1836-2006 feet

Twin Falls has a Pioneer Farm, which is run as a farm from the 17 and 1800s would have been. The Huckleberry Trail passes alone part of the fence of the Pioneer Farm.

We only saw chickens at work when we hiked by.

The Cliffside Trail is very flat and wide until you reach where it branches off to view the cliffs. Then you actually get some real hiking (and elevation, and scrambling)…

Bet the view is lovely on a fall day–or a clear day. :)

Twin Falls is named for the two falls in the park (Duh).

The Marsh Fork Falls

and the Black Fork Falls

Both have a scramble to get down to the base, and both were muddy and messy, but it was a very nice view. (I really wanted to explore on the other side of the Black Fork Falls, but I decided it wasn’t possible life-flight interesting over there.)

If you go off the main trail, you can reach the point where the Black Fork and Marsh Fork meet, which is a very pretty area, that would be lovely to explore in the summer.

And if you pay attention (and are again willing to scramble) you can view the remains of the foundation of an old mill.

It was a lovely trip.

We hiked EVERY DAY this year!

Sadly, we go back to work tomorrow, so this trend will end abruptly.

But it was good while it lasted!

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Advanced Ski and Mont Chateau Trails
Distance: 6.4 miles
Elevation: 1406 – 2323 feet

I am sorry to report that, aside from being the fastest way down to the Mont Chateau trail when the gate is closed, the Advanced Ski Trail doesn’t have much to offer.

It was–kinda boring. Or as boring as a hike in the forest can get. All the things I took pictures of were on the Mont Chateau Trail.

But, it was still time on the woods, which makes it a good day.

Although one of us had a sightly sensitive stomach, from eating nothing but junkfood for a week straight, we made it out to Coopers Rock for our first hike of 2016.

The gate is closed, so there are limited trail options, unless you want to hike into the forest and then take a trail from there.

So we took Scott’s Run trail, which I do like, but we didn’t hike all summer and fall, since it’s our fall-back trail when the forest is closed.

Location: Coopers Rock
Trail: Scotts Run Trail
Distance: 3.5 miles
Elevation: 1853 – 2207 feet

Although I took some pictures at Valley Falls, we just hiked at Coopers Rock, and didn’t stop for pictures.

Despite the crappy weather, we got in two last hikes.

Location: Coopers Rock
Date: 30 Dec
Trails: Roadside, Rattlesnake, Ridge, Rhododendron, Unmarked Trails
Distance: 3.3 miles
Elevation: 1901 – 2188 feet

Date: 31 Dec
Trails: Unmarked, Clay Run, Rhododendron, Ridge Trails
Distance: 4.0 miles
Elevation: 1730 – 2251 feet

On the 30th, we came across this interesting stump.

This is the view straight down:

On the 31st, coming up the Rhododendron trail, we came across this newly fallen tree.

The picture is blurry, partially because we had been climbing uphill, and possibly because I’d just pulled my phone from my warm pocket into the cold air. But the exposed root structure was, when tipped on its side, taller than Michael.

It’s rained a LOT recently, and the exposed soil didn’t look like it had been rained on, so this was a very recent fall.

Saturday was gorgeous, so we made (another) trip to New River Gorge.

Location: New River Gorge
Trails: Kaymoor Miner’s, Kaymoor, Craig Branch, Butcher Branch, Long Point, Fayetteville Trails
Distance: 9.8 miles
Elevation: 1355 – 2005 feet

Woke up this morning to blue skies and cool weather, so we jumped in the car (after layering up) and headed out to Coopers Rock.

It was beautiful.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Rhododendron, Mont Chateau, Ridge, Rock City, & Eagle Trails
Distance: 5.1 miles
Elevation: 1391 – 2347 feet

We hiked this twice, on two different mornings, and it was gorgeous both times.

Location: Canaan Wildlife Refuge
Trail: Beall Trails
Distance: ~2.2 miles & 1.7 miles
Elevation: 3137 – 3323 feet

After hiking up Seneca Rocks, we then went to Spruce Knob.

Spruce Knob is the highest point in WV, at 4,863 feet. As it’s so high, it’s also windy and much colder than anywhere else in the area. We saw snow flakes while we were there. (But they didn’t amount to anything.)

Location: Spruce Knob
Trails: Whispering Spruce, Huckleberry (partial)
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation: 4735 – 4887 feet

Location: Dolly Sods National Wilderness
Trail: Rohrbaugh Trail (partial)
Distance: 3.0
Elevation: 3790 – 4120 feet

As is par for the course for every visit we’ve made to Dolly Sods, it was wet and muddy, which is part of the reason we only hiked a third of the Rohrbaugh trail (the other reason was that I’m still somewhat exhausted from this never-ending cold).

The trails are nowhere near as scenic as Bear Rocks, but it was still a gorgeous hike.

Saturday was unbelievably gorgeous, and we were lucky enough to be able to spend part of it at Dolly Sods–even if there were, like, a zillion people there. (But not as many people as we at Coopers Rock on Sunday.)

I hope you had just as much beauty in your weekend.