The Newest National Park

 

The New River Gorge was changed from a national river to a national park and preserve in 2021, which makes it the newest national park in the country. We had already made plans to visit Acadia National Park when this happened, but once that was done, it was time to plan a trip to West Virginia. 

We drove here via my dad's house in Virginia; going through a tunnel to emerge into West Virginia. That's always fun. It was a bit rainy, so we decided to check out the visitor's center before setting up camp. 

After eating lunch and buying a couple of maps and books, the rain had let up so we did Hike #1 - the short overlook walk down many steps to see the bridge - an engineering feat that cut the trip to cross the river from 45 minutes to 45 seconds.

That was the beginning. We then spent a week hiking, enjoying nature, and taking a thousand pictures.

In our opinion, this park really isn't deserving of "national park" status - we were raised in the west after all - but it is a beautiful place and we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation.