Grandview / New River Gorge

New River Gorge National Park | Camping in Meadow Springs Campground | Hiking in Grandview | Grandview, WV to Wilmington, NC | January 2022

We woke up in our empty campground in New River Gorge to 50 degrees and a bright pink sunrise coming through the gorge. Just like last time we camped here, there were low hanging clouds hovering around the mountains giving the area a cool, mysterious look. We packed up and drove down the interstate to Grandview, a subsection of New River Gorge National Park and our intended hiking area for today, which was across the river and a few miles North of where we camped.

We parked in the main parking lot and first went to admire the view — and it was indeed grand! It was a great overlook of the river far below, cutting through the mountains. We could see several sections of rapids, and the train tracks that wove their way around the bend. The low-hanging clouds really made the view since the trees were all bare. We snapped a few pictures and read the signs, then set off on a hike on Castle Rock Trail, mostly because Charlotte turned confidently in that direction and who are we to tell her no?

The trail turned out to be a bit more rugged than we had expected — I would’ve worn real hiking boots had I known. The trail went down, narrowly hugging the side of the cliff, with a steep drop off on the other side. If it had been any muddier I wouldn’t have been as comfortable, but today it was fine. I loved the color palate of the shades of brown from the ground and bare trees with the green mountain laurel that grew all around. Taking this trail proved worth it when we came to what we presume was Castle Rock. The rock wall was tall, stretching both above and below the trail. The trail eventually met up with the Grandview Rim Trail, which we took back to the main parking lot, and enjoyed a few more views of the gorge along the way as well as the highest point in the National Park. Altogether this loop hike was just over a mile.

We wrapped up our time in the park by driving out to Turkey Spur Rock where we walked up the rock to enjoy more views to the South and North of the gorge. The river makes several hairpin turns in this area, and you can see it flowing in opposite directions all from this view. Both Grandview and Turkey Spur Rock are great ways to get good views with minimal effort all for just driving a few miles off of I-64. We were thankful for another great visit to New River Gorge National Park, and hope to be able to continue visiting to explore more sites both up and down the river!

After that, it was time to finish our drive to Wilmington. We had about 6 hours to go, and we once again changed up our route to see new counties and roads through North Carolina. This time, we bit the bullet and drove I-40 from Winston-Salem, through Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham, all the way to Wilmington. It was hard to believe how much traffic there was through the cities, but thankfully it was always moving, and once we were passed Raleigh the roads were much quieter throughout our final stretch to Wilmington.

When we arrived, the first place we went was the beach! Since we figured out that we had seen an ocean every year since 2012, we decided to just check this box early so we could continue the pattern another year. We drove to Wrightsville beach, where Curtis did some metal detecting and I walked Charlotte, who was very excited to be out of the car and be running through the sand, chasing down smells. It was 70 degrees, we were warm, barefoot, and happy to be here. We stayed until sunset, watching the skies turn pink.

To wrap up our first night back in Wilmington, we picked up some snacks and breakfast and lunch supplies at a grocery store, then checked in to our hotel in downtown Wilmington. For dinner, Curtis and I walked to Fun Bowl and enjoyed poke and ramen.

Our stay in Wilmington wasn’t as long as last time — just 5 days total — but we were excited to be back and to enjoy the things we’ve come to love about downtown and the routines we’ve created while there. I don’t have any desire to live there, but I think I’ll always get excited about returning for short periods of time like these. And that’s the beauty of Curtis’ new job — hopefully we’ll find other cities and areas that we can get to know better and enjoy visiting whenever given the opportunity!