After more than a year of full-time RV life, we finally visited our first national park: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. Yes, first. When you travel with jobs, the parks somehow keep ending up one exit past wherever you have to be. This time we made it the destination, and getting our Brinkley there was an adventure before we ever saw the gorge.
Getting a 40-foot fifth wheel into gorge country
West Virginia roads do not care how nice your rig is. The approach meant steep mountain grades, narrow turns where the trailer tracks well inside the truck's line, and then, as a final exam, a gravel campground road. There's a particular quiet that settles over the truck cab when the pavement ends and the rig is still bouncing behind you. We took it slow, made it in, and got parked and set up with everything intact. The site itself turned out to be a good one, and we walk you through it in the video.
Packing like we were summiting Everest
The next morning we packed for a day of hiking, and by "packed" we mean Fabiola loaded enough gear to survive a week in the wilderness. Snacks, layers, backup snacks. We tease her about it on camera, but for the record: everything got eaten, and nobody was cold. Preparedness wins again.
Overlooks, the bridge, and the Endless Wall Trail
We started at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, then took the stairs down to the Lower Overlook for the classic view of the New River Gorge Bridge, the longest single-span arch bridge in the western hemisphere and the image on every West Virginia postcard. Photos don't convey the scale. The gorge drops nearly 900 feet below the bridge, and you feel every one of them standing at the rail.
The main hike was the Endless Wall Trail, and it earned its reputation. The trail runs along the rim past cliff edges, rock formations, and the suspended ladders that climbers use to drop down the wall to the routes below. Around every few bends there's another view of the river cutting through the gorge. It's about the best effort-to-view ratio we've hiked anywhere: mostly gentle forest walking that keeps paying out canyon panoramas.
Tacos, tequila, and a verdict
We closed the day the correct way, with tacos and tequila and sore legs, talking about what's next. Our verdict on New River Gorge: it's an underrated first national park. It's compact enough to see the highlights in a day or two, the crowds are thinner than the famous parks out west, and the bridge alone justifies the drive. Just respect the roads getting in if you're towing something big. Go slow, plan your route, and don't trust the GPS's opinion of what counts as a road.
Watch the whole trip, from the white-knuckle drive to the Endless Wall, on YouTube. We also send a short weekly newsletter about where we are and what broke this week. The signup form is on our newsletter page.