New River Gorge National Park
Another solo road trip led me to West Virginia. My father was raised in this state, and it is one of those places where its natural beauty: rolling hills and rivers stays with me.
My destination on this trip was the national parks, and one of them was the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
The New River runs through the landscape, carving a deep gorge over time. It is considered one of the oldest rivers in North America, and as it winds through the valley, it shapes everything around it: the cliffs and the forests.
For many years, this area was protected as the New River Gorge National River in 1978 to preserve both its natural beauty and its historical significance. In 2020, it was redesignated as a national park by Donald Trump, becoming one of the newest national parks in the country.
There is history here as well, small towns once lined the river, built around coal mining and the railroad. Much of that is gone now. But the river continues to move through the landscape, steady, unchanged, and largely untouched by the passage of time.
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