DAWSON, W. Va. — Our campground is located on a ridge in the south central part of this scenic state just off Interstate 64 about 20 miles west of Lewisburg. We’re treated to nice sunrises over the fields to the east and sunsets behind the wooded hills to the west.
On Sunday afternoon, after attending a local church, we strolled the grounds of the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs. We’d never been to this famous resort even though we’ve lived next door in Virginia for more than 20 years. It reminded us of the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado or the Grand Hotel in Michigan, but with a distinct southern decor and atmosphere. (Elizabeth is looking a bit too much at home in the photos, don’t you think?) When we stopped at the security gate to enter, one of the young men smiled when we said we we’re the Griswolds. This isn’t the first time on our trip that our surname has been a source of amusement!
On Monday, we hiked along the rim of the New River Gorge, America’s newest national park. From the Grandview overlook, we gazed down on the river 1,400 feet below. Then we hiked 1.5 miles out and back along the Grandview Rim Trail to the Turkey Spur Overlook, where we could see the river flowing one direction before us and the other direction behind us. The Castle Rock portion of the trail took us alongside steep sandstone cliffs bending out over the trail. The day was clear and in the 70s, but shaded most of the way.
On the north end of the park, near Fayetteville, we crossed the New River Gorge Bridge and then looked up in wonder at its immense arch at the lookout at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. Opened in 1977, the bridge is billed by the park service as “a work of structural art — the longest steel span in the western hemisphere and the third highest in the United States.” It’s the second time in two weeks that we’ve crossed a bridge billed as “the longest of its type in the hemisphere.” (The Mackinac Bridge is the other.)
Providing background music for this leg of our journey has been “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” by John Denver. West Virginia’s beautiful rivers and wooded mountains give it as good a claim as anywhere we’ve seen to be “almost heaven,” and its country roads are taking us home to the place where we belong.
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