North Bend State Park

 North Bend was the final stop of our West Virginia camping vacation.  The biggest attractions in North Bend are the rail trail and "lake." The lake is much more narrow and long than I think of when I hear the term lake.  Essentially when the river was dammed the lake continued to follow the river layout.  When we were there temperatures were in the 90s so we really weren't feeling like doing a rail trail.  Looking at the map I thought our site was going to be lakeside.  There are two campgrounds in the park and the other one is lakeside.  We were in the one that is up on a hill.  The river is down at the bottom of the hill but not visible from the campsite in the summer.  Driving around the camp we saw that they had a lodge and an education center that appeared to be nice.   In cooler weather I think we'd have enjoyed the rail trail, which extends far beyond the park. 

We had been planning to find a brewery for our dating anniversary and this was the first campground where we were able to find a brewery close enough to be feasible.  On the way to the brewery we went to some local parks and historic sites.  Mountain State Brewing was a nice lunch stop, very close to the highway. 

All the sites in the Cokeley campground were full sun, but they were spacious and laid out in a circle format with the bathhouse in the middle.  The bathhouse was modern and clean with a room for laundry and dishes and a little library.  There was also a large playground in the center and when we were there a lot of kids were using the playground.