West Virginia - Day 4

Day 4 - We had hoped to visit Greenbriar Inn in White Sulphur Springs (15 minutes east of our hotel) but knew that our day was already going to be really long (and it wasn't going to be light out for another hour) so we skipped it. The Greenbrier is a "World Class Resort and National Historic Landmark". If only the days were longer...we would've stopped to at least take pictures of the resort. Our initial itinerary had us taking a tour of the Greenbrier Bunker. This is a bunker that was built within the resort in 1958 to be used as an "emergency Cold War fallout shelter and relocation facility for the US Congress". We were sad to bypass this cool historical landmark.

We left Lewisburg around 6:30, arriving to our first stop soon after the sun had risen for the day. Our first 2 stops were Sandstone Falls & Brooks Overlooks on Rt 20. Both of these stops gave us great views of the New River valley below.

Our original itinerary included us crossing the New River in Hinton and backtracking up the river to Sandstone Falls Boardwalk. By adding this stop, we figured it would add 1-2 hours (depending on how much time we spent at the boardwalk). I was disappointed (this was one stop I was really looking forward to), but we knew that we had a long day ahead of us so we cut this stop first thing.

Bluestone State Park Swing

Located at the confluence of the Bluestone National Scenic River & Bluestone Lake / New River, we found the Almost Heaven Swing at the scenic overlook.

Pipestem State Park Swing

15 minutes down the road (Rt 20), we arrived at Pipestem Resort State Park. We didn't see the swing right away but did locate a park ranger and asked him for directions to the swing. He knew exactly where it was and told us to follow him. What a blessing that we met him because the swing was at the far end the park and I don't know that we would've found it without his help (It wasn't difficult to find, but at the end of the park - which was large!)

Pipestem was one of our favorite swings of the trip. The valley below was beautiful!

East River Mountain Scenic Overlook Swing

This stop was in Bluefield, the southernmost city in West Virginia. Just weeks before, Bluefield had seen devastating floods go through from Hurricane Helene. The combination of rain and high winds caused flooding and downed trees and loss of power to much of Mercer County. 

We didn't drive too far into town but did witness damage (downed trees and water) in the area we were in. Very sad.

We drove up the East River Mountain to the overlook - great views! After sitting on the swing and enjoying the view, we hopped back in the car and headed south down the mountain - now we could say that we had been in Virginia during this trip!

We made an unplanned stop at Pinnacle Rock State Park, which was on our route (Hwy 52). What a nice surprise this park was! We didn't explore for too long - but we did climb the trail to the top of the rock.

From Pinnacle, we drove to Bramwell for lunch at The Corner Shop (old fashioned ice cream parlor and restaurant).

We really enjoyed looking around at all of the fun things around the shop. Unfortunately, that was all that we did. We sat down and waited to be served...and waited...and waited. We finally got menus and decided on our order. When the waitress came to get our drink order, we also ordered our food...which she didn't seem too excited about. We could tell she was swamped with taking food orders, serving drinks and making the ice cream items (we think they were short a server or two). After a bit more time of waiting (she hadn't been back with our drinks yet), we decided to pull the plug. We stopped at the ice cream counter (where she was putting together an ice cream order) and told her to cancel our order (we were nice about it) and left (I think she was relieved that someone left!).

It sucked. We were bummed. We spent 30+ minutes there and hadn't even gotten our drinks yet but we really wanted to give this cute shop a try...and we were hungry! *This*! This is why we don't stray from our usual food stops, lol! Honestly, while I was planning and researching for this trip, I had a list of a dozen+ food places that we could possibly try. All of them made it to the final itinerary but most of the spots weren't feasible to do because of the time of day we'd be going through that town or we were in a time crunch (especially with the shortened days of Fall). 

Again, we were hungry but hit the road (eating a few snacks to get us through) to head to Coalwood, the next stop on our itinerary. An hour later, we arrived in Coalwood - Home of the Rocket Boys (Memoir written by Homer Hickam, Jr, later made into the movie October Sky). 

We stopped at the rocket memorial for a few pictures and then drove to the launch site, Cape Coalwood (named after Cape Canaveral by Homer Hickam). We drove down the back country road to see the rocket launch site but ended up turning around before getting to the actual site. Being in a rental car, we weren't too comfortable driving too far back on the rough road...and we think we heard banjos, ha!).

Leaving Coalwood, we debated on driving back into Welch to find a late lunch but decided to continue heading north to our next stop - Chief Logan State Park (almost 2 hours away). 

As we drove through Justice, we noticed that cars were stopped and that the line was not moving. After sitting a few minutes, we looked at the map to see if there was another way to get to our next stop. Unfortunately, the only other way to our next stop would add 30-45 minutes. We decided to wait it out. We sat for 20 minutes without moving. When we finally started moving, we passed an accident that had completely closed down the road ahead of us. Maybe our stop in Bramwell protected us from this accident?? We will never know. 

Once through the accident area, we made a stop at a McDonalds for a restroom break and some ice cream...which we found out (after we ordered through the app) that their ice cream machine was down (shocker!) At this point in the day, I was done. I was hungry and emotional and I started to cry (very sad thing to admit). I just wanted some ice cream! Matt was tired from driving the country, mountain roads. We can laugh now, but in the moment, we were done. 

We decided to continue to Chief Logan State Park (which added 2 hours to our day since it was an hour in the opposite direction from our hotel). to find the swing. I'm so thankful that we did! It was a beautiful park and we really enjoyed seeing that area. 

Chief Logan State Park Swing

This was another park that we had problems finding the swing. It was a large park - luckily someone had posted the swing on Google Maps and we were able to locate it (after driving all around the park!).

Here we are - tired and done for the day. Sadly, we still had one more swing to find and a 2 hour drive to our hotel for the night.

Lake Stephens Swing

Of all the swings, this was the one we were dreading the most. Not dreading the swing itself, rather locating it. I searched and searched for information of WHERE the swing was located, with no luck. The lake is huge - we didn't want to drive around the entire lake to find it...or worse yet...NOT find it! We pulled into the park and looked at the directional sign for guidance - an overlook possibly? What we saw was beautiful!!! The park listed the Almost Heaven Swing on the sign! Thank you Lord! And, the swing was just a few minutes inside the park. A huge blessing!

We finished our driving for the day in Beckley - food & hotel! We finally got a meal for the day (6:00pm!). 

What a long day of driving! Over 8 hours of sitting in the car and driving mountain roads. We got to see some amazing views, but we were thankful to be at the hotel with full tummies!

Favorites from Day 4

Matt - Drive to Bluestone, Pipestem (favorite swing)

Becki - Chief Logan Swing/Park