Camp Creek, West Virginia

Planning this vacation was very stressful.  Once we decided on West Virginia camping we still had the issue that their reservation system is very different from the other states we've camped in.  For PA and many other places we can see by the date what's available and limit our choices that way, for West Virginia we had to choose the park then check availability.  If I knew more about what was near each park I would have handled this better but, by the time we chose West Virginia there wasn't time to wait on pamphlets.  I'm still old school about that and like to spread brochures out and check distances and locations online, instead I went to The Touring Camper on their blog and social media.  We've come to trust their campground reviews when in a new area, so I checked and they didn't have anything on the blog but I knew they had posted something not that long ago about the New River Gorge Bridge and thought they had camped in the area-ironically the campground review was posted while we were at Camp Creek!  I thought the gorge sounded like a nice area to explore and sure enough they had open spots. We stopped at the New River Gorge bridge on the way to camp. It was a perfect place to stretch our legs and I can easily see why it’s so popular.

 I was actually surprised there were open sites because it is a small campground with less than 30 sites.  We had one of the most open sites, it was level and had a fair amount of shade.  I think if the creek were higher you'd even have a small area where you could view it.  

We knew there was a waterfall when we got to Camp Creek, it turns out there were two (I probably had read that and thought there were two names for one) so Monday we decided to start with waterfall exploration.  While I showered my husband looked for the trail and found another waterfall nearby as well.  After visiting the two waterfalls in Camp Creek we got a park map and saw that there were many cemeteries in the park and attached state forest so we tried to find one, it turns out you need an off road vehicle or more ambition to hike than we had with us.  

Instead we set off for Brush Creek Falls, the other one my husband found online.  This had a short hike to the falls, as well as a second fall further back the trail. We only went to one.

Then I suggested visiting Pipestem State Park, which neighbors Camp Creek.  This park was named for a plant they used to make pipe stems, which I found interesting-unfortunately I didn't see the plant. There are some nice overlooks in Pipestem, but we didn't find a lot that suits our taste.  However we saw a reference to another waterfall in the area and headed to Sandstone Falls, now the picture I saw definitely told me this was a little bigger than the waterfalls we'd seen up until that point but pictures did not do it justice.  They have a nice boardwalk path across the river so you can easily see the magnitude of these falls; it was definitely the highlight of the day!  

On the way to Sandstone Falls we'd passed a pull over for Pipestem falls so we stopped there on the way back to camp.  When we pulled over I wasn't expecting much because you really couldn't see the creek, but a short walk up the hill and there is a beautiful waterfall.  I was once again very pleasantly surprised.   By that point we'd decided to head back to camp and relax before dinner.  

The second day was my birthday so we decided to go to Tamarack first and see what kind of locally made items I wanted for a birthday present.  I was impressed by a lot of the items but the only things I felt needed to come home with me were earrings and chocolates (okay the chocolate didn't come home).  I was finally able to get more that one brochure and decided the Coal Heritage trail looked interesting and one of the stops was in the same town-unfortunately the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine museum was not open but I did enjoy the exteriors of some of the buildings and machinery.  As we travelled to other areas on the heritage trail we struggled to find what the brochure was referencing (for example it would say the historic downtown has many buildings made by the mine company-but we didn't see any markers designating which ones). Of course as we drove we started to get hungry so we started looking for pet friendly pubs but again we had some issues (I'm sure in non pandemic situations this would all be easier). Finally we wound up eating at a place called the Bike Farm-it is amazing how much landscaping can be done with old bikes.  Fayetteville still has a Ben Franklin, so I asked to stop and look at their craft section-all I bought was moonshine jelly and chocolate covered pretzels, though I did see some fabrics I liked. We tried a few more places from the Coal brochure and reached a point of frustration that we decided to head back to camp and make steak and potatoes rather than try to find another restaurant.  

All in all Camp Creek is a very nice campground and we both felt we'd go back (especially when the creeks are higher) but it seemed more of a two night destination for us than the three we had planned.