Hiking

Hiking is never easier or harder than in West Virginia. A beautiful landscape is always just outside your window in Glade Springs. Residents are constantly walking the many wooded streets and lanes of their neighborhoods. Getting even closer to nature on foot requires only a visit to one of the nearby state parks and their many trails. Each park has its own system of trails with lengths and challenges to suit hikers of all abilities. Scenic, breathtaking vistas await in the majestic mountains and low river valleys offering family-friendly hikes and backcountry adventures during each of the four seasons.

Spring and summer welcome the wildflower season. Nearby Grandview State Park is proud to show off its blooming rhododendrons and a 2-mile jaunt on Little Laurel Trail reveals a wonderful diversity of wildflowers as well as grand views of the gorge. Near Charleston, Kanawha State Forest has 25 miles of trails that are home to Wild Sweet William, Jack in the Pulpit, and flowering Pawpaw trees. A short trek through the woods near Chatham Lake will take Glade residents to the many trails around Little Beaver Lake. Other nearby state parks like Pipestem, Babcock, and Camp Creek have their own distinctive trail systems ripe with gorgeous scenery. If you love waterfalls, you will love hiking to many of the hidden gems tucked deep in the wilderness on the WV Waterfall trail. Close by is Sandstone Falls with a width of 1,500 feet spanning the entire New River. Downriver the waters of the New and Gauley merge to form Kanawha Falls. A little farther down old Midland Trail (U.S. route 60) and enthusiasts will find the dramatic, gothic Cathedral Falls in Gauley Bridge. Take a short drive on the Coal Expressway and you will find Twin Falls State Park. A little over an hour away are the Hills Creek Falls just 5 miles from the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center in the Monongahela National Forest. Camp Creek State Park also has many waterfalls along its trails.

Fall is a great time to see the foliage as it changes colors from green to gold and red, and there is no better hike than the Long Point Trail in Fayetteville or the Endless Wall Trail near Lansing. Winter hikes along the boardwalk through the nearby Cranberry Glades Botanical area protects the largest area of bogs in the state and includes beautiful, glistening landscapes in their winter coats.