Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

I spent the long Indigenous Peoples' Day (formerly Columbus Day) weekend (October 7-10) on a camping/hiking trip at Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. The trip was organized by Bob, who runs the meetup group Hiking, Kayaking, and Cultural Adventurers. About 18 members went on this trip, most stayed in cabins or the lodge at the Canaan Valley Resort. I camped at the State Park's campground and was joined by Nadine in her RV. I met Nadine when camping at Manatee Springs State Park FL back in March. Fall folliage was just starting to peak, and the campground's trees were showing their colors.

Saturday Oct 8: In the morning, we took a scenic drive to Parsons to observe the multi-tribal pow wow, Thunder in the Mountains. I have never attended a pow-wow before and it was quite interesting. I got permission to take a photo of one of the tribal members in his regalia. We got there at about 11 am but the event did not start until noon. We were only able to catch the opening ceremony before we had to head back to the state park for our 1 pm group hike.

The trailhead to Blackwater Falls, our first hike, was close to our campground but very crowded. Because of the folliage, the fantastic weather and the long holiday, it appeared that everyone wanted to hike to the falls. The trail was short and very easy, much of it was a boardwalk to the beautiful falls.

We then drove to the trailhead of our second hike, Elakala Falls. There were relatively few visitors; the trail was also less accessible. It was much more difficult getting to the bottom of the falls, requiring climbing over and hanging on to rocks but well worth the effort.

After dinner at our campsite, we joined fellow hikers at a campfire at Bob's cabin where we chatted and made s'mores. It was a lovely night, with a full moon.

The next morning, Nadine and I visited the town of Davis, instead of going horse riding with some members of the group. We had a fun time looking at the fall exhibits around the small town.

After lunch, we made our way to the Canaan Valley Resort "main lodge" parking lot to meet up with the group for our hike to Bald Knob. Bald Knob (4,843 ft) is the highest summit of Back Allegheny Mountain in Pocahontas County, WV. We were told that this would be a challenging and steep 5 mile hike. There was a misunderstanding over the meeting place and by the time we figured it was the ski lodge, the group had already left. We did not know the way to the trail. Fortunately we asked the right person: a lady who used to work at the ski resort was getting to her car in the parking lot. She gave us some useful information, including the fact that we could take the ski lift to the top and where to get tickets ($5 for seniors). Since we were already so late, we decided to take the ski lift. I found the ride up to be a fun but cold experience.

At the top, we saw a few members of the group who had gone on this outing before and knew to take the ski ride instead of hiking. We took a lot of photos, then decided to hike down. On the trail back, we found that a fork led up to the actual summit; apparently the ski station was not the summit. More lovely views, unfortunately my phone battery died and I missed out on photo opportunities. The trail down was indeed very steep, which made us happy that we did not hike up!

We were both tired and sore by the time we got back to the campsite. I am glad that Bob planned the itinerary with the easiest hike first, leaving the tough one last. The entire trip was a great experience. I decided to leave for home on Monday morning, instead of joining the group on a driving tour and dinner.