Glade Creek Hike

Saturday, I headed to West Virginia for the holiday weekend.  Near Beckley, I headed into New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and parked at Glade Creek Campground.  Glade Creek Trail followed its namesake upstream and in about a mile, I came to Glade Creek Falls.

It was a scenic creek-wide drop into a beautiful blue pool.  It was a little chilly to swim but I enjoyed scrambling around.

Back on the trail, I passed right over the top of the falls.

It was a little late in the season, but there were still some wildflowers blooming along the trail.

There was some Meehan's mint and a lot of skullcap in bloom.

After about 3 miles, a footbridge crossed the creek.

I got into the creek bed and went downstream a short ways to see some cool cliffs.

From here, the trail continued the rest of the way on the river right side.

In about 4.5 miles, a short spur trail led to Kates Falls on a tributary of Glade Creek.

It was really scenic, even in lower water levels.

I scrambled around on the rocks for a bit and had a snack here.

Then I headed back to the main trail.

Upstream, there were more nice cascades on Glade Creek.

The first set was just downstream of the I-64 bridge and the second was just upstream.

A young lady was attempting to swim at the upper one, but it looked pretty cold.

I went as far as the upper trailhead and then turned back.

I saw a rat snake slithering along the trail on the hike back.

From here, I took off and headed towards Hinton.  I was pretty hungry by this point so stopped for an early dinner at River City Grill and Pub.  Then I headed to Bluestone State Park to set up camp for the weekend.  With a few hours of daylight left, I went for a hike in the park, starting on the Big Pine Trail.

Near the end, I took a detour on Overlook Trail but the overlook was pretty overgrown.  The view would be better in winter.

At the end of Big Pine Trail, I got on Riverview Trail and followed a small tributary downstream.  There was a small drop over a wide ledge.

Just past this was a small waterfall that I'm calling Riverview Falls.

It's small and low-flow, but kind of interesting as it pretty much drops into the lake.

Riverview Trail continued on following the lakeshore.

I saw yellow irises and bladder sedge blooming along the trail.

The yellow irises are pretty, but very invasive.

The trail ended at the road and I took this back to camp.