The Mountain State - West Virginia Weekend

Back at the end of July we realized we had a Delta buddy pass that was about to expire so we took the opportunity to get Paul some coaster credits and visit a new National Park up in West Virginia. We flew into Charleston on a Friday afternoon and back to Atlanta on Sunday, so it was a quick weekend getaway. While in West Virginia we visited Camden Park near Huntington, toured the State Capitol and Museum in Charleston, visited New River Gorge National Park (America's newest National Park), and just generally enjoyed the pretty countryside of the "Mountain State."

To kick the trip off, after landing we drove an hour west to Huntington to visit Camden Park and Malibu Jack's (just over the border in Kentucky). Camden Park is a classic, opening in 1903. It's a bit run down, but has some incredibly rare and unique historic rides. It's a small family park, but more than worth a visit for coaster enthusiasts. The most notable attractions are the "Hawnted House" (yes, it's spelled that way), a 1960s dark ride that can be considered a roller coaster, and Big Dipper, a 1958 classic wood coaster that is an ACE Roller Coaster Landmark. Our quick stop at Malibu Jacks, about a 15 minute drive to the west over the Kentucky border, was to ride the small indoor spinning coaster.

The "Hawnted" House.

This was foreboding.

The Big Dipper coaster was great - but could use some paint.

The ACE Landmark plaque.

They let kids sit three to a seat on Big Dipper.

Paul in front of the sign for Camden Park, with its creepy clown.

Credit run at Malibu Jacks.

After grabbing the coaster credits, we drove back to Huntington to look around and find some dinner. A common theme we noticed in West Virginia is that the downtowns for the "larger" cities were actually pretty put together. The fact that they hug rivers and are confined to mountain valleys makes them pretty compact and walkable. Downtown Huntington had a lot going on the Friday evening we visited. There was a summer music festival, lots of people wandering around and a good amount of downtown retail for a city of only around 50,000. We did some shopping at a comic/nerd store, and found a brewpub named The Peddler that had video game themed food and drinks, and an upstairs arcade. Beer names were tongue-in-cheek, like "Mighty Morphin' Sour Ranger." After dinner Paul got some ice cream at Austin's at the Market before driving back to Charleston to check in to our hotel.

Huntington city hall, currently under renovation.

Downtown Huntington had good urban form.

A theater and shopping district downtown.

Summer music festival series.

Dinner at The Peddler. Featuring a pepperoni roll, which is a regional dish.

A flight at The Peddler.

We're digging the video game theme here!

Of course Paul found ice cream.

Our hotel in Charleston served as our home base and we stayed there both Friday and Saturday night, as it was in the middle of everything - with Huntington and the coasters being to the West, and the national park to the Southeast. Charleston, like Huntington, is around 50,000 people and hugs a river in a valley. It's a quiet city, but has a number of attractions.

Saturday morning Paul got some coffee at Mea Cuppa inside the Capitol Market. We then got some food at a regional breakfast biscuit chain (Tudor's Biscuit World) and visited the West Virginia State Museum (because it's closed on Sundays when we were planning on touring adjacent capitol).

View from our hotel of a barge going down the river.

West Virginia is pretty, but there is a lot of poverty and disinvestment. It's the second poorest State.

David digging into a biscuit. Biscuit World is like a Hardees... it's fine.

The West Virginia State Museum was worth the stop. It's free and adjacent to the State capitol building. It's medium sized, and it's easy to spend over an hour here. Overall, we thought it was very well done and informative. It put a lot of effort into theming and telling the story of West Virginia. It had a surprising amount of content on black West Virginians for a state that's around 89% white. So kudos there. Some more questionable information provided by the museum for your amusement: 1) apparently, white settlers just sorta came into the State unimpeded, because for "whatever reason" the natives had already left... uh huh 2) A key reason for West Virginia to split from eastern Virginia was the east's "unwillingness to compromise" 3) Despite talking A LOT about coal and mining, there was only one small exhibit describing environmental concerns which did not include climate change.

David gives county-themed art two thumbs up at the State Museum.

Well if it's "real good" that's good enough for me!

The museum was very thoughtfully themed.

Paul would likely be the world's worst coal miner, but he looks cool doing it. 

We left the museum around noon and made our way toward the New River Gorge National Park. This is the newest national park, established December 27, 2020, and it's a worthy one. It's quite sprawling, and encompasses not just the river gorge but also large forested areas and several historic mining towns. We started at the Canyon Rim visitor's center, which was extremely crowded (well it was a summer Saturday). From here you can see the most famous view in the park, the New River Gorge Bridge. After looking around we drove east and south, skirting the edge of the park, stopping at the Glade Creek Grist Mill in the adjoining Babcock State Park. We stopped at the Sandstone Visitor's Center for a long distance view of the falls before turning back north. Our next stop in the park was the impressive Grandview Overlook, where we took a short hike along the cliffside. This was our favorite part of the park, as it had fantastic views and nice hiking.

A small waterfall on the way to the park.

Awwww.

Paul with the famous bridge.

The old grist mill.

The whole area has a lot of great Appalachian scenery.

Yay, cool roofs on the visitor's center!

Sandstone Falls.

Grandview overlook.

Walking along the Castle Rock trail at Grandview.

By this point we were hungry, so we drove to nearby Beckley and had dinner at Little Sicily. After dinner we stopped by Family Game Knight, a little video game and comic store. But we weren't quite done with the National Park yet - on the way back to Charleston we took a detour to Thurmond, which is a historic district inside the Park. A number of abandoned buildings stand alongside the railroad tracks in this once-booming coal town. Interestingly, an Amtrak route still stops here, although it had only 364 passengers in 2021, as there's literally nothing around. We closed out the day with a drive back to our hotel in Charleston.

The lasagna was meh, but the calzone was decent.

David with Gringar the Pokemon.

The rail and car bridge to Thurmond.

Paul on the bridge.

Downtown Thurmond.

Some, ah, interesting graffiti.

The old Whipple company store, part of the national coal heritage area.

The next day, Sunday, we had about half a day to spend doing touristy things before we had to head to the airport. We walked from our hotel to breakfast at First Watch, then stopped by Taylor's Books. Downtown Charleston has some nice areas, but it feels fairly deserted. A big part of that could be because it was a Sunday morning, but also population decline. The city reached a peak population of 85,796 in 1960, and has since shrunk all the way to 48,018.

View of the river on our walk to breakfast.

Yum!

Downtown Charleston has some nice spots.

Taylor's books.

Some interesting art on a big plaza downtown.

After visiting downtown, we walked back to the hotel to hop in our rental car and check out South Charleston. Oddly, South Charleston is actually northwest of Charleston. The "south" part of the name is because it lies on the south bank of the Kanawha River, while Charleston is on the north bank.

South Charleston is small and sleepy, but we spent some time walking around downtown, visiting a small Asian grocery store, and seeing the Criel Mound. We then drove back to Charleston to visit the State Capitol building. We were able to go inside and see the halls and the interior of the dome. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the senate or house chambers, but we wandered around for about 15 minutes before leaving.

Our final stop in West Virginia was the Capitol Market. Paul had visited here briefly the previous morning to get a coffee, but we went back to visit the fully opened market. It's a nice place, with a number of vendors. Rather than being a market with just bougie prepared foods, it actually has a number of places selling fresh meat and veggies, wine and beer, and grocery goods. A great amenity for the neighborhood! 

A super weird Big Boy "museum" along the route.

The Criel Mound, probably built around 200BCE.

View of downtown South Charleston from the top of the mound.

The West Virginia State Capitol Building.

It's a standard design but it quite impressive.

Art on one of the capitol office buildings.

Inside of the dome.

Halls of the capitol building.

The outdoor section of the Capitol Market.

Of course we found ice cream at the market.

Paul (right) found a bigfoot (left) at the airport!

West Virginia is a weird State. It has a lot of natural beauty, but has suffered a lot from various environmental and social issues. It's the only state that has lost population over the last half century (West Virginia has fewer people now than it had in 1950). From poverty, the opioid epidemic, lack of diversity (both economic and cultural), and the environmental legacy of coal mining, it has a host of problems to overcome. With the new national park tourism is on the rise, and a couple of prominent universities bring liveliness and economic development. For us, it was a nice weekend trip and we'd definitely recommend a visit to New River Gorge National Park.