My boyfriend’s cousin was getting married in West Virginia the last weekend of October. We thought we would take this opportunity to make it a road trip to explore a new state. Sadly, my boyfriend had an unexpected death in the family right before our trip. A day or so before the wedding we had to attend a funeral in Maryland. We cut our WV trip in half, cancelled reservations, rearranged our itinerary and drove straight to Maryland then to WV for the wedding. We did eventually go back to WV to finish our trip. See West Virginia: Part 2 for the 2nd half (which would have been the 1st half) of our trip.
Though I was not a huge fan of WV overall, I did enjoy everything that we did and everything that we saw. If you are trying to see all 50 states like we are, I would go to WV with a particular itinerary to see the cool things it has to offer
Our first stop in West Virginia was Grave Creek Mound. I honestly can’t say I recommend this because though interesting, we just looked at it for 5 minutes and left.
Our next stop was one of my favorite places we went in WV. Mount Wood Castle and Cemetery. This place was amazing! We read reviews ahead of time and many said this is a common drug deal/using spot so we made sure to go bright and early in the morning to avoid any issues. We were the only people there when we went. We stayed a long time. I loved taking in the views and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it. It was so cool! If you do anything in WV I recommend this!
After we left the graffiti castle we took a beautiful, scenic drive to Cooper’s Rock State Forest. Because we went in the Fall, all of the trees were colored beautifully. It was a magical drive everywhere we went. I highly recommend going to WV in the Fall.
Cooper’s Rock State Forest was a beautiful overlook. It was very windy, I had to hold onto the banister’s for dear life!
Our last stop of the day was Greenbank Telescope. My boyfriend really wanted to see it and I have to say that it was really cool! It was massive and the tour provided a lot of interesting information. We were a little nervous because the weather started turning but luckily it held up right until we left! It started raining the second we got into our car to leave. How lucky!
The next day we woke up nice and early and headed to our first destination- Blackwater Falls State Park. Funny enough, we thought this was going to be a long hike so we prepared to hike but it wasn’t at all. It’s a short walk to see a beautiful waterfall. We must have looked crazy. We looked like we were ready to trek a mountain and it was a short walk! We went very early in the morning so there was only one other couple when we were there, which worked out very well for our pictures!
Spruce Knob was absolutely amazing. It was a nice short walk with a lot of payoff! You first drive up a mountain through twisting and winding roads which was sometimes scary but wasn’t too bad because there weren’t many other cars on the road. I would have been afraid if there was more traffic.
Once you get to the top you just park and walk around. The scenery was amazing!
Seneca Rocks State Park was actually something that was on my list of things to see but we randomly drove past it and couldn’t look away. It might not look like much from the picture but it was breathtaking!
So this was West Virginia: Part 1. Keep a look out for West Virginia: Part 2- coming soon!
Have you been to WV? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!