New River Gorge - Bridge Trail

Our morning hikes were fairly short ones, so after lunch we still had energy to do some more exploring. We decided to try the Bridge Trail, which starts at the end of the one-way Fayette Station Road (where it becomes two-way) and connects to the Fayetteville Trail. 

The trail starts with a deceptively difficult, slow and steady, uphill climb to a small meadow. Then it descends steeply until you're underneath the New River Gorge Bridge. Needless to say, it's not necessarily a quiet, get-away-from-it-all hike. But it is a nice and cool, shady trail.

After a mile, the Bridge Trail ends at a junction with the Fayetteville Trail. Our original plan was to take the Fayetteville Trail down to its end at the road, then retrace our steps back to this junction, hike the Fayetteville Trail up to its junction with the Park Loop, and then return to our car. Yes, it sounds complicated, but the challenge is to hike all the park trails with a minimum of backtracking. So, off we went down the hill.

Our literature said the Kaymoor Trail was closed from this junction to the Miners Trail junction (due to some washouts), so we weren't planning on doing that hike. However, I had also read that there was a beautiful waterfall not too far off the road before the trail closure, and I wanted to check that out. For some reason, I find watching waterfalls quite relaxing and soothing. The creek that came through here was nice as well, and we weren't able to get out to explore that while driving the Fayette Station Road, which with only a few parking spots was not unexpected.

It was a popular attraction!

After passing the waterfall, we didn't see any trail closure signs, so we kept going. And we had a lovely walk, and even found some park signs to read.

We made it all the way to the Miners Trail junction - no trail washouts to be found - at which point we turned around.

Wolf Creek, again

This time when we made it to the Bridge Trail junction, we decided we'd head straight to the car, and save the rest of the Fayetteville Trail for another day.