West Virginia - Days 1 & 2

Matt & I realized that he had a few vacation days that he needed to "use or lose" a few months ago. We loved the idea of just the two of us getting away for a long weekend and started looking at ideas of what to do/where to go for 4-6 days. We already had a few ideas when we came across a Facebook post...

We loved this idea - knowing that we could hit most (if not all) of the West Virginia swings in 6 days and see the many areas of the state that we hadn't seen before.

Just 2 summers ago, we found our first swing (without knowing that there were others) at Babcock State Park. We fell in love with the swing and took lots of pictures - enjoying our time sitting and taking in the beauty around us. 

August & September, there was a lot of planning done. We wanted to hit as many things as we could in our time there. I researched WHERE to find the swings once we were in the parks, etc. The more we planned, the more we realized that visiting all of the swings was not going to work for this trip. There just wasn't enough time in the day (especially with the shorter days) to drive from one swing to another. We also had a handful of other stops that we wanted to see/visit while there - that's why they made the swings, right!? So, after all was said and done, we cut out the northern most swings as well as the swings on the eastern edge of the state. Hopefully we can hit those on another trip.

Fast forward to Friday, October 4th, Matt and I loaded up the car and hit the road at 3:45 am. 

As we crossed over into Indiana, the sun was making it first appearance!

Approximately 10 hours after leaving the house (8.5 hours of driving, lunch, 1 gas fill-up and 1 rest area stop), we crossed the border into West Virginia - into Parkersburg!

Our first West Virginia stop / first swing was at Blennerhassett Island. This island is only accessible via boat (Island Belle Sternwheeler). We found Point Park on the map and headed there...only to be stopped by a very long train that wasn't moving! Getting over those train tracks was the only way to get into the park! We were slightly stressed because we knew that there was only one more trip out to the Island for the day and we didn't want to miss it. Luckily, the train started moving and we were able to make our way into the park. 

Once parked, we used the restroom and even had a few minutes to enjoy the beautiful views that the park had to offer!

You can see the sternwheeler coming towards the dock, just over my shoulder.

Off we go!

What a beautiful day for a boat ride!

Once on the island, we had a few decisions to make. We only had 30-40 minutes before the park closed for the day and the ferry would leave to take us back to Parkersburg. Instead of doing the tour of the mansion, we decided to walk around the island and see things on our own. 

The Blennerhassett Mansion has a neat history - which can be read here. One of the Blennerhassett's frequent guests was Aaron Burr, who used this mansion as his headquarters for his military expedition to the Southwest (in 1805). We both agreed that the mansion had a Mount Vernon feel to it, even though it was built 70 years later.

After walking around the mansion and gardens, we found the Almost Heaven Swing and took our pictures.

On the back of the West Virginia cutout, they built a ledge to place your cell phone and set the timer. Throughout our trip, we had some funny moments as we set timers only to have it immediately take a picture. Or we would go to see the previous picture - go to grab the phone and then it would take another picture (from the open hand picture taking prompt). 

We walked around the gift shop (buying our Christmas Ornament souvenir) and walked one last time around the mansion, before heading down to the dock for our return ride to Parkersburg.

Leaving Parkersburg, we drove back into Ohio and north along the Ohio River for a bit and then back into West Virginia and north into Wheeling. 

We were quickly losing daylight at this time but had a few more stops to make in the Wheeling area (3 swings).

Grand Vue Park Overlook, Moundsville. 

We drove all over, trying to find the overlook. Finally finding it, we got to enjoy the sunset from the overlook. It was a very peaceful evening with only the sounds of Friday night lights coming from the town below (football announcer, marching band and occasional cheering).

We drove (now dark) to the Oglebay Park Good Zoo parking lot but quickly turned around. There were a lot of people walking out to their vehicles because of Boo at the Zoo. It was too busy and dangerous (very dark with lots of people walking around, especially kids and the park is situated on a winding hill). We would try to locate the swing on day 2. We also scratched the swing from Wheeling Heritage Port for Day 2. It was too dark and we were ready to find dinner and our hotel - we were tired!

Day 1 Route -

Favorites from Day 1:

Matt - Grand Vue Park Swing/Overlook (the sunset and peacefulness of the evening)

Becki - Grand Vue Park Swing/Overlook (hearing the football game, the overlook) 

Day 2 - Saturday, October 5th 

Up early (definitely a theme for our trips) but not too early, because the sun didn't come up until 7-7:30 every morning. Also, we hit fog and heavy dew EVERY morning. I don't know how the beautiful people of West Virginia deal with that every single day! It got old, real quick.

We spent the night in St. Clairsville, OH and headed back into Wheeling to find the 2 swings we missed the night before. 

Downtown Wheeling was very quiet...with the exception of this family!

First stop - Wheeling Suspension Bridge. This bridge was built from 1846-1849. It was "the first long-span wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States...it is the most significant remaining pre-Civil War bridge in the nation". 

The bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic but we were able to walk across it. 

We looked around the bridge area for the Almost Heaven Swing, with no luck. We had noticed a park (from the bridge) and decided to drive there to see if the swing was located there. 

Found it! Sadly, it was hidden in shadows and very wet. 

We walked around the park a bit (later found out the park is "Heritage Port").

From Heritage Port, we drove back to the Oglebay Good Zoo area. We knew it would be busy because of the Boo at the Zoo activities, but we were SHOCKED to see HOW busy it was. We turned into the park and immediately asked the police officer (directing traffic) for directions to the Almost Heaven Swing. He wasn't sure where it was but directed us to toward the zoo, where he said, "I'm sure that's where it is, there's a lot of things down in that area". As we drove into the parking lot, we quickly realized that we were in the right place but at the VERY WRONG TIME! As you can see from the picture below, we were minutes away from getting stuck in a parade!! As much as we hated to, we drove the park (looking for the swing as we drove) and knew that we wouldn't be getting pictures with the Oglebay swing. We were thankful to have missed the parade though!

Leaving the zoo, we headed back down to Heritage Port, in hopes of snapping a few quick pictures of the swing - without shadows.

Some neat things we saw on the way. 

We had to Google why there was an Elephant statue downtown Wheeling...

"Bobo" was built in memory of a 1954 visit from a elephant packed circus that came to town - the elephants were marched across the Wheeling Suspension Bridge.

Yah! The shadows had moved and we could see the full swing now. 

Our next stop was in Morgantown. We left West Virginia and entered Pennsylvania - the quickest way to get to Morgantown.

Cooper's Rock State Park

As was the case with many of our stops throughout this trip, we were met with a large crowd once we entered the main parking lot. The park was hosting some trail races (50k, 25k, 10k, 5k and 1 mile fun run). It was busy! We walked through the gift shop, out to Cooper's Rock and then took our picture at the swing before hitting the road again.

Breathtaking! We loved the rocks, views, walkways, etc. 

First real sign of Fall colors. We were really hoping to see more of this.

There were a few swings that got busy - We waited our turn and offered to take pictures (just as others did for us) to help speed things along. We even blessed them with our own selfie(s) before taking their pictures 😂

Back in Morgantown, we snapped this picture of a Don Knotts statue. Knotts was born in Morgantown in 1924 and later graduated from WV Univ in the same town. 

Dorseys Knob was our last stop in Morgantown. No swing at this location, but an amazing view of the area!

We headed north towards Phillipi, WV with a stop for lunch along the way. 

Near Grafton/Webster (Rt 250), we stopped for a quick photo of the Anna Jarvis Museum (& Birthplace). Anna Jarvis campaigned for a holiday to honor Mothers - making Mother's Day an official holiday in 1914. Ironically, Anna never had children but wanted to make a holiday for her own mother.

Matt loved that the house was also used as General George McClellan's first field headquarters in 1861.

Philippi Covered Bridge

We drove into Philippi to see their covered bridge and swing. Built in 1852, this covered bridge is the longest and oldest in West Virginia. It is rich in Civil War history and much of today's bridge is original! We drove across the bridge, parking in the lot just east of the Tygart Valley River. We then walked across the bridge and found the Almost Heaven Swing. 

Stonewall Resort State Park

Our last stop for Day 2 was Stonewall Resort. We weren't sure where to find the swing so Matt ran in to the resort to ask for directions. We then enjoyed the quiet of the evening while we walked around the back of the resort, along the West Fork River. This area is where we saw the first sign of the drought that West Virginia has been dealing with this summer/fall. 

The river was so low!

We drove 45 minutes to our hotel in Elkins, battling the craziness of the Mountain State Forest Festival held in Elkins. The downtown streets were filled with carnival rides and a lot of people! We were able to maneuver through the side streets and find our pizza restaurant (which we had ordered as we drove into town) and took it back to the hotel to finish our evening. 

Day 2 Route - 

Favorites from Day 2 - 

Matt - Wheeling Suspension Bridge

Becki - Coopers Rock State Park & Philippi Covered Bridge