West Virginia offers year-round outdoor adventure options with some of the most stunning and challenging landscapes on the East Coast. Hiking, camping, caving, rock climbing, white water rafting, boating, and fishing are all popular activities in the area’s untamed mountain region, heavily wooded wilderness areas, and fast-running rivers. Ski resorts provide a variety of snow activities throughout the winter.
Active tourists will never be bored in this town. While many visitors come to West Virginia for the state’s outdoor activities and scenic landscapes, the state has much more to offer in terms of tourist attractions, ranging from the historic sights of Harpers Ferry and the elegant Greenbrier and its legendary golf courses to some very unusual attractions, such as a tour of a penitentiary.
Snowshoe Mountain
Winter sports enthusiasts go to West Virginia throughout the winter months. Many individuals have made arrangements to visit Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia’s most popular ski resort. It has 60 slopes, some of which were designed by an Olympic skier to provide world-class skiing.
Snowshoe Mountain, unlike many other ski resorts, is located at the summit of the mountain. While the resort is named Snowshoe Mountain, it is situated inside the Allegheny Mountains, which get lots of snowfall, making it ideal.
Visitors may enjoy skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities throughout the winter. It features paths for all abilities of skiers and offers basic training. Mountain biking, golfing, ATVs, and other sports are popular summer hobbies.
The resort has a large complex to explore while taking a break from the slopes. It’s part of the Village at Snowshoe, which offers extra attractions including eating, a spa, shopping, and more. Snowshoe Mountain is a popular family getaway and one of West Virginia’s top attractions. One of the best places. Other honorable mentions include the Youth Museum, and West Virginia State Capitol in the mountain state. These are some beautiful places and popular places.
Monongahela National Forest
The Monongahela National Forest provides spectacular vistas, animals, and the state’s highest peak, with altitudes varying from roughly 1,000 feet to 4,863 feet above sea level. Its more than 900,000 acres of varied topography and rainfall sustain more than 225 bird species, 75 tree species, and 70 game and non-game fish species, making it one of the most diversified forest ecosystems in the nation.
The Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area covers around 100,000 acres of the park and offers some of the greatest conventional multi-pitch difficult climbing on the east coast. Seneca Rocks is a 250-foot-deep white and gray quartzite structure that rises about 900 feet above the North Fork River. Some routes are easy, but the exposed top pinnacle poses a test for specialists.
The park is enjoyable even if you are not a climber. Non-climbers may visit the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center, stay in the Seneca Shadows and Big Bend campsites, go fishing or stroll through the park’s hundreds of acres of wildlands in search of birds. There are a ton of bike trails above the New River Gorge bridge above Gauley river. Other best things to visit include the Capitol market or other segway tours and hiking trails and nature trails through the garden of the Stonewall Jackson lake resort.
Blackwater Falls State Park
Blackwater Falls, named for the Blackwater River’s black waters, which are tinted by tannic acid from fallen hemlock and red spruce needles, descend 60 feet over sandstone cliffs before continuing on through an eight-mile-long valley. The falls are accessible all year thanks to steps and observation platforms.
Elakala Falls, which flows down the canyon wall and can be accessed by a short hike, and Pendleton Falls, which can be viewed from a highway pull-off, are both popular spots to visit in the park. Another park attraction is the view into the Blackwater Canyon from Lindy Point, one of the most beautiful spots in West Virginia, as well as Pendleton Point Overlook, which is located at the canyon’s deepest point.
A boating lake, as well as swimming, fishing, and camping, are available in the park. 1584 Blackwater Lodge Road is the address in Davis, West Virginia. Honorable mentions here include the Harpers Ferry national historical park and white water rafting as a very point pleasant and fun activities.
Appalachian Glass
Appalachian Glass is a great site to visit in West Virginia since it is home to three generations of excellent glassmakers. The artists behind the exquisite glass creations you’ll see throughout your stay are Matt, Chip, and Todd Turner. With over 75 years of total industry experience, this family of glassblowers has worked together, frequently learning from one another, to create both beautiful and useful glass.
These men were fortunate to discover their vocation in West Virginia, which is rich in the natural materials needed to produce glass. Appalachian Glass also offers daily glass blowing demos, which are a sight to see if you’ve never seen it done before!
The procedure is blowing air into a glob of molten glass while rolling it into the required form; this process is repeated until the desired shape is attained, and then the object is put in a kiln to set. The procedure is difficult and delicate, requiring the kind of dexterity that only years of training can provide. You will not be disappointed if you visit this West Virginia hotspot (pun intended).
Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
Ride on renovated logging flat cars pushed by a vintage Shay steam engine at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park to experience the Golden Age of Steam on a route established in 1901 to move timber from the forest to the mill. Switchbacks enable the train to climb gradients as high as 11% to reach Bald Knob throughout the course of the 4.5-hour journey. This is West Virginia’s third-highest point, at 4,700 feet, and it offers amazing vistas.
A 1940s logging camp has been reconstructed at Whittaker Station, complete with living quarters and equipment. There is a museum and a depot on the site, as well as refurbished company residences that may be hired for overnight stays. Prepare for noise, black smoke, and freezing weather on the train trip to Bald Knob.
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is a milestone in the history of care for the mentally ill, and is as unusual a tourist destination as the West Virginia Penitentiary. The asylum, which was built between 1858 and 1881, is the biggest hand-cut stone masonry edifice in the hemisphere, second only to the Kremlin in Moscow.
It was created by architect Richard Andrews, who staggered the long rambling wings to provide as much restorative sunshine and fresh air to each of the connected buildings as feasible.
The tours include a variety of historical topics, such as architecture, Civil War raids, mental health care, and even the facility’s agricultural past and significance in the community. The institution, like the West Virginia Penitentiary, has served as a testing ground for paranormal investigators. Close to Charleston.
Green Bank Observatory
Due to minimal interference and pollution, West Virginia is an excellent site for seeing into space. The Green Bank Observatory was founded to observe and investigate space, but it has evolved into a fascinating location for adults and children to learn about astronomy.
Green Bank Observatory was founded in 1956, however, it did not begin operations until 1958. It used to be the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s headquarters, but it now operates autonomously.
Multiple radio telescopes at the observatory measure radio waves received from space. At 300 feet, the Green Bank Telescope is the world’s biggest completely steerable radio telescope. Other telescopes are smaller but equally useful for space viewing.
The grounds and facilities of the observatory are open to visitors. You may take a guided tour of the telescopes, which includes a ride into the restricted sections. There is also a Science Center and an exhibition hall on the premises where you may attend seminars. The Green Bank Observatory is without a doubt one of West Virginia’s most unusual tourist attractions.
West Virginia State Museum
Touring the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston to learn about the state’s culture, history, art, paleontology, archaeology, and geology is one of the free things to do in West Virginia. A pair of costumed fleas from a 19th-century flea circus is one of the most popular of the museum’s 60,000 objects.
More serious exhibitions take visitors on a journey through the state’s history, starting with stone and dirt and finishing with a paved roadway. Audio elements complement displays and videos as visitors go from room to room through the ages.
Everyday equipment and goods, such as a telescope used by George Washington to survey the property in West Virginia, are among the artifacts. You may learn more about John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry in one part, and an early settler’s hut has been rebuilt elsewhere in the museum.
Oglebay Resort
This fantastic West Virginia resort offers elegance, relaxation, and fantastic recreational opportunities. Oglebay Resort near Wheeling, West Virginia, offers a lush golf course, horseback riding, hiking, a beautiful lake, an aerial obstacle course, and more. Wheeling Park, which has an Olympic-sized pool, tennis courts, a waterpark, and even an ice skating rink, is also located within the resort.
There are several relaxing amenities at Oglebay Resort in addition to all of the recreational options. The West Spa is a 5,000-square-foot facility that offers exquisite spa treatments. There are also ten on-site eateries serving a variety of cuisines.
On top of that, the resort is home to the Good Zoo, which is home to over 50 different animal species including pigs, bobcats, pandas, cheetahs, leopards, and more. Surprisingly, the Oglebay Resort is a one-stop holiday resort with a wide range of activities in one convenient location. If you have some experience levels you can try whitewater rafting. On the other side visit the Cass Gilbert with a train ride through the visitor center.
The Greenbrier
The Greenbrier has been designated as a National Historic Landmark on many occasions. The elegant hotel, which has housed 26 presidents, foreign officials, and royalty, including Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, is located at White Sulphur Springs, which has been in use as a natural spa since the 1700s.
But, as large and opulent as it is as a resort, it has also had other historical purposes. It was utilized as a detention camp for German and Japanese diplomats who were in the United States when war was declared early in World War II. Later in the war, the US Army took it and used it as a hospital, treating over 25,000 people.
The resort and the 5,100-acre Greenbrier State Forest offer more than 50 different activities. In addition to horseback riding, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, adventure courses, and a 40,000-square-foot spa, the resort offers several golf courses (including an indoor one for the winter) and a long tradition of hosting tournaments.
The 78-mile Greenbrier River Path is a multi-purpose rail-trail that is also used for cross-country skiing in the winter. Greenbrier State Forest provides cottages and campsites, swimming, fishing, biking trails, and hiking. One of the most romantic things to do in West Virginia is to stay in one of the century-old Legacy Cottages.
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