Images of New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – Southern West Virginia, taken in July 2022.

Designated in 2020, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve runs along fifty miles of the New River, one of the oldest rivers in the world and older than the surrounding Appalachian Mountains it runs through; some of the exposed rock is over 300 million years old.

The park is a diverse mixture of the wild river and surrounding forest and the towns which sprang up to harvest the rich veins of coal found in the area. In the south, Sandstone Falls, the largest falls on the river, spans 1,500 feet across and drops ten to twenty-five feet. To the north of the falls, in the center of the park, the spectacular view of Backus Mountain and Horseshoe Bend can be seen from the Grandview Overlook. Nearby, the towns of Prince and Quinnimont sit on the river’s edge while further north a boomtown known as Thurmond became the financial and railway hub during the coal boom.

Also, in the northern portion of the park, sits the New River Gorge Bridge. Hosting US Highway 19, the bridge is the third-highest in the US (876 ft) with an arch span of 1,700 feet. For the 100-years prior to the bridge being built, traffic had to weave its way along the eight-mile-long historic Fayette Station Road, which today is a scenic drive yielding spectacular views of the bridge from inside the gorge.