1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (48 page)

W
HERE:
50 miles southeast of Charleston.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-927-0263 or 304-465-5617;
www.newrivercvb.com
.
H
OW:
Wildwater Expeditions, Lansing. Tel 800-982-7238 or 304-658-4007;
www.wvaraft.com
.
Cost:
1-day New River rafting trips from $79, Lower Gauley trips from $76.
When:
Mar–Oct on the New River, weekends, early Sept–mid-Oct on the Gauley.
B
EST TIMES:
Oct for foliage; 3rd weekend of Oct for Bridge Day (see p. 277).

Cruising the Crest of the Mountain State

Richwood to Edray, West Virginia

Built for the sheer pleasure of mountain driving, the Highland Scenic Highway spans 43 miles of unbroken forest in West Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands, a quiet two-lane highway that transports you to the wild heart
of the 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest (see p. 280). Travelers will encounter not a single house, business, utility pole, billboard, or traffic signal along the 23-mile section of Route 150, modeled on Virginia’s Skyline Drive (see p. 252). The original and most lauded portion of the Highland Scenic Highway, Route 150 offers a feast of panoramic vistas as it travels along the ridgetop, a relatively straight shot compared with the winding country roads that John Denver made famous in his 1971 classic hit. Over 60 percent of Route 150 is above 4,000 feet and at these elevations the state’s mostly hardwood forests of maple and oak give way to a vast stand of red spruce, lending the scenery a distinct northwoods look. There’s no plowing in the winter, so when the snows arrive, so do snowmobilers ready to take over—the road is all theirs.

Most people begin the drive just outside the lumber town of Richwood on Route 39/55, which leads to the U.S. Forest Service’s educational Cranberry Mountain Nature Center. While not quite as dramatic, this initial stretch of road is nearly as pristine and has some of the area’s most interesting stops. Walk the half-mile boardwalk that penetrates (and protects) the 750-acre Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, a series of primordial bogs usually found much farther north and in Canada.

Prime trout waters are easily accessible from several points along the way, including the North Fork of the Cherry River (which parallels the route for 15 miles after leaving Richwood) and the Williams River (which the highway crosses about 10 miles from its eastern end). If you’ve come for the glorious display of autumn foliage in late September, head to nearby Marlinton and the popular West Virginia Road Kill Cookoff. The half-serious wild-game cooking contest stipulates that all entries be made from animals commonly seen along the road—possum, raccoon, squirrel, deer, rabbit—though never scraped off it.

W
HERE:
begins on Rte. 39/55 outside Richwood (110 miles east of Charleston) and heads north on Rte. 150.
www.byways.org
.
C
RANBERRY
M
OUNTAIN
N
ATURE
C
ENTER:
Tel 304-653-4826.
When:
closed Dec–Mar.
B
EST TIMES:
late Sept–early Oct for fall colors; last Sat in Sept for the Autumn Harvest Festival/West Virginia Road Kill Cookoff in Marlinton (
www.pocahontascountywv.com
).

Where Quilts, Bees, and Apple Butter Meet

Ripley, West Virginia

It’s not every day that you get the chance to see a man sporting a beard of swarming honeybees, hear Appalachian music performed as it was generations ago, and enjoy kettle-fresh apple butter smeared on just-baked bread
. That’s why people flock to the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair, an institution since 1963 when it was first held to celebrate the birth of the state 100 years prior. (West Virginia was the only state to come into existence because of the Civil War, when it voted in 1863 to break away from Virginia and join the Union cause.)

Set on the 400-acre open-air campus of rustic buildings, barns, and lodgings that began in 1950 as a camp for the Future Farmers and Future Homemakers of America, the four-day Mountain State Fair attracts more than 200 of the very finest jewelers, basket weavers, saddle makers, blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, rug-hookers, lace makers, shingle-splitters, soap makers, and expert quilters demonstrating how they craft their quality wares. One specialty, West Virginia glassmaking, goes back some 200 years, a result of the state’s abundant supplies of fine silica and clean-burning natural gas. When First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy wanted stemware for the White House, she chose West Virginia glass. The state is also known for its hardwoods, and woodworkers here turn out everything from small, intricate puzzle boxes to whimsical wood-sculpted carousel steeds. An almost nonstop program of old-time music provides a live sound track, and foods like barbecued chicken and homemade ice cream provide endless sustenance.

Aspiring crafters return to the Cedar Lakes Conference Center for year-round programs that include weaving chair bottoms out of hickory bark, hand-forging cutlery, or working under the careful tutelage of a master quilter.

W
HERE:
Cedar Lakes Conference Center; 40 miles north of Charleston. Tel 800-CALL-WVA or 304-372-7860;
www.msacf.com
.
W
HEN:
1st weekend in July, Thurs–Sun.
C
RAFTS
P
ROGRAM:
Tel 304-372-7873;
www.cedarlakes.com
.
Cost:
4-day Quilt Retreat, $625, includes lodging and meals.

A Thrilling Blend of Down-Home and Downhill

Snowshoe, West Virginia

Southern hospitality and skiing just don’t seem to go together, but then West Virginia is the Mountain State and plenty of snow piles up on the Alleghenies in winter. Just ask Washington, D.C., snowhounds, who hightail
it to Snowshoe, a 4,848 foot monster mountain with a 1,500-foot vertical drop.

First developed in 1974, Snowshoe Mountain Resort is an “upside-down resort,” with a mile-high village at the top of the mountain instead of the base. Thanks to a quirk of West Virginia geology, you ski down into the hollow and then ride the lift back up. Now backed by megabucks from Intrawest, owners of Canada’s Whistler (see p. 1062) and Tremblant ski resorts (see p. 1014) and Vermont’s Stratton (see p. 108), Snowshoe Mountain has become a stellar property, with 57 trails and 14 lifts. Better skiers head to one of the original trails, Cupp Run, designed by Olympic gold medalist Jean-Claude Killy, and Shay’s Revenge, as challenging as many black-diamond runs you’ll encounter out west. Another surprise on the 11,000-acre tract of alpine wilderness is the backcountry log cabin you can reach via cross-country ski, snowshoe, or (most popular) a snowmobile trip of 2-plus miles. Stop in for lunch or dinner prepared by the hutmaster, or stay overnight and enjoy a cooked-to-order breakfast before hitting the slopes or trails.

Come summer, Snowshoe Mountain is one of the country’s best places for downhill mountain biking—just sail down the single-track trails, downhill runs, and free-ride courses, then ride the lift back up again with your bike in tow. At the base of the mountain, golfers can enjoy their game with temperatures that rarely exceed 80 degrees on Raven Golf Course. With spectacular tees high above fairways and greens, it’s regularly rated the best public course in West Virginia.

W
HERE:
250 miles west of Washington, DC. Tel 877-441-4386 or 304-572-1000;
www.snowshoemtn.com
.
C
OST:
lift tickets from $35; lodgings from $90 (off-peak), from $210 (peak); dinner at Hut $95 per person.
B
EST TIMES:
Jan–Mar for best snow; mid-Aug for Monster Park Slopestyle Invitational mountain biking races; late Sept–early Oct for fall colors.

Giant Snowflakes and Cinderella on a 19th-Century Estate

Wheeling, West Virginia

One of the largest and most splendid holiday light displays in the country, the Oglebay Winter Festival of Lights is a 6-mile driving tour that benefits not just from the spectacular setting—a Gilded Age tycoon’s
1,700-acre 19th-century ridgetop estate that is now the public-owned Oglebay Resort—but from a world-renowned landscape lighting expert. Every year a million people enjoy more than 50 giant displays, like the 60-foot-tall candles and poinsettia wreath floating on a hillside, the drive-through tunnel lined with a flurry of giant twinkling snowflakes, and Cinderella’s dazzling castle and pumpkin coach drawn by six prancing horses. The artistry comes from the Netherlands’ Dick Bosch, who uplights bare winter trees and buildings, with the perfect balance of light, shadow, and silhouette to create a mood and ambience rarely seen. Others have tried to copy it; few have succeeded.

Oglebay Resort is owned by the city of Wheeling, a gift from native Earl Oglebay, a
banker’s son who made a fortune speculating in iron ore. Anchored by the 265-room Wilson Lodge and 50 charming cottages, Oglebay Resort is a family-friendly destination with skiing, snowboarding, and West Virginia’s only zoo (30 acres of wildlife enclosures viewed from a 1.5-mile train ride). And it’s a golfer’s paradise, with 72 holes of stellar golf on courses designed by Arnold Palmer and Robert Trent Jones Sr. (Palmer devotees can try another acclaimed course 110 miles away at Stonewall Resort, a 196-room Adirondack-style lodge in the Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park.)

Twinkling lights turn a tunnel into a fantasy experience.

The holiday lights don’t stop with Oglebay: The town of some 30,000 residents really gets into the spirit by coming ablaze with lights itself. That includes holiday decorations at Coleman Fish Market, located in a converted 1853 cast-iron market and famous for its fish sandwich—clusters of steaming-hot fried pollock between two pieces of soft white bread, the best snack in town. Downtown Wheeling is unusually handsome, embellished by the 19th-century fortunes made by outfitting pioneers after the Wheeling Suspension Bridge was built across the Ohio River in 1849.

In July, the big excitement in these parts is found across the bridge in Ohio, where the nearby Jamboree in the Hills takes place, a four-day outdoor festival featuring more than twenty country-and-western megawatt acts like Reba McIntyre, Carrie Underwood, and West Virginia’s own Brad Paisley.

W
HERE:
60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, PA.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-828-3097 or 304-233-7709;
www.wheelingcvb.com
.
O
GLEBAY
R
ESORT:
Tel 800-624-6988 or 304-243-4000;
www.oglebay-resort.com
.
Cost:
from $99 (off-peak), from $135 (peak); greens fees from $60.
S
TONEWALL
R
ESORT:
Roanoke. Tel 888-278-8150 or 304-269-7400;
www.stonewallresort.com
.
Cost:
from $129; greens fees from $55.
C
OLEMAN’S
F
ISH
M
ARKET:
Wheeling. Tel 304-232-8510.
Cost:
fish sandwich $4.
J
AMBOREE IN THE
H
ILLS:
Tel 800-624-5456 or 304-234-5000;
www.jamboreeinthehills.com
.
Cost:
4-day pass, $200.
When:
4 days in mid-July.
B
EST TIMES:
late Mar–Apr for the annual display of 50,000 tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths; Nov–early Jan for Winter Festival of Lights.

Where Presidents Take the Waters

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

In 1778, Mrs. Amanda Anderson, who suffered from terrible rheumatism, went deep into the Allegheny Mountains in search of a natural spring that the Shawnee Indians believed had curative powers. There she drank her fill
, soaked lengthily in a tub made from a hollow tree, then waited for the cure to take effect. Miraculously it did, and a health resort was born. In 1784, Virginia lawyer Michael
Bowyer received title to the valley land around the spring, and over the following years built a tavern and several log cabins to accommodate visitors. Around 1810 Bowyer’s family began transforming the property into a proper resort, and in 1858 added a majestic, pillared hotel that became famous, attracting visitors like Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and numerous presidents—26 at last count.