RV West Virginia's Blackwater Falls State Park! | Hiking for Waterfalls and Fall Foliage!

Рет қаралды 246

5 ай бұрын

In this Episode:
Our 2023 camping season continues, and we’ve made our way to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia!
This is the FINAL journey for our 2019 Wildwood X-Lite!
We’re going to show you this area “as the river flows.” So we’re moving on from the swamps of the Canaan Valley, the highest valley east of the Mississippi, into the Blackwater Gorge. These waters exit the valley in a triumphant fashion, over Blackwater Falls!
Because of the climate, this area has reached the peak of fall foliage before much of Pennsylvania and other areas to the North. We did not expect to see such colors, but it was exciting to enjoy this unexpected experience! I’ve personally never seen leaf colors as bright and vibrant as these here.
We start our journey, a short walk from the campground, at the main falls. Complete with a well stocked trading post, this is the best place to get information and begin the adventure. The main falls are a sight to be seen, and we were treated with amazing fall colors! This first weekend of October, is the best time to visit!
Our next destination, required a short drive over to the Blackwater Falls SP Lodge. This is the trailhead for the Elakala Trail, which leads down to Elakala Falls. I wouldn’t have thought it possible to top the main falls, but Elakala might have done it. This is an epic setting, full of Rhododendron, and complete with a wooden bridge that overlooks the falls from the top! A quick rock scramble will get you to the base of the falls.
While making our way along the trail, we discovered the Pendleton Point overlook. We were greeted with more fall colors and another distant waterfall! This is a great spot to view the gorge, and I’m so glad we found it!
Balanced Rock was our next destination. A short 1 mile out and back hike would get us there. While this isn’t the greatest “balanced rock” we’ve ever seen, it is a really pretty walk through a special Hemlock forest!
We’ll finish this episode with a Chicken Rice Soup recipe, cooked in a dutch oven over our campfire!
Next Week; We’re trading our Camper in for a Tent!
Our journey continues every Thursday at 5:00!
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Friends, welcome to our RV Camping and Adventure channel. Ryan and Rachel here, we are weekend warriors with a mission to highlight RVing in the eastern United States. We are joined by our daughter Sarah, son William, and our two dogs (Trigger and Lilly). Home is in Pennsylvania, and while PA is our favorite State to explore, we’ve found there’s much more to explore! Our 2019 Wildwood X-Lite is towed behind our 2021 RAM 2500 BigHorn. We hope you will subscribe, join us on some of our adventures and be inspired to go on your own adventures.
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Пікірлер: 21

@ervinslens 5 ай бұрын

Fantastic cinematography my friend! Absolutely gorgeous work!

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

Thanks! I really appreciate that compliment!

@poentang 4 ай бұрын

Such a lovely place! Beautiful hike. The wonderful waterfall. Thank you for sharing! 👍

@mountainsintomemories 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@campoutwestus 5 ай бұрын

Gorgeous State Park! You were right, the fall colors were even better than last week's episode. The soup looked really tasty too.

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

That soup was surprisingly good, I definitely recommend that recipe!

@coleswanger 5 ай бұрын

“Almost heaven” is about the most accurate description one can give wild West Virginia and Blackwater Falls SP is just one of many places in the state that give credence to that phrase. Camping there this summer is on the docket for the family and looking forward to throwing our new son in his Osprey and following in y’all’s footsteps on this trip. Keep bringing that West Virginia glory as I’ve been binging the playlist from prior trips down there taking notes and making plans!

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

Congratulations on having a boy! They’re a special kind of challenge! Definitely take him out on the trail with you, these kinds of experiences are invaluable! We’ve been reading a lot about the influence the outdoors has on kids, and it’s something I want to talk more about on the channel moving forward. Thanks for watching as always, I’m hoping more WV will make our 2024 itinerary!

@3degreeimages 5 ай бұрын

Another great family trip for you guys! Great waterfall!

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

The more I think about it, I think this one easily should be in our top 5. Thanks for watching!

@MaksimOutdoors 5 ай бұрын

It’s been years since I ventured down to Black Water and it was a treat to see it draped in fall foliage, you got some really nice views along the way. Never really did much research into the park but I didn’t realize there was a campground there, might try and do a little WV trip this summer and bang out the high point, Seneca rocks and black water in one swoop if I can pull it off. Really enjoyed seeing some of the “unseen” sections of the park the majority of the folks probably will never get to see. Wonder what that next adventure is 🤔

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

That would be an epic adventure if you could fit that all into one journey! Seneca Rocks is really something to see. I’ve really been want to do Spruce Knob, maybe get there this season. Next week’s episode should prove interesting. It’s different, in almost every aspect, from the norm.

@pennsylvaniaforestadventurer 5 ай бұрын

Loved coming along on this adventure. Great area for sure. Loved the waterfalls and the leaf peeping. Trough Creek's balanced rock is definitely cooler, but that trail is definitely easier. Looked like another great recipe! Great stuff!

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

The trail at trough creek is a tough one, but really unique payoff, especially for around here. I’d love to go and film it, maybe this spring. Nothing that I’ve seen can beat WV for leaf peeping!

@pennsylvaniaforestadventurer 5 ай бұрын

I will agree with all of this...😁 When we were there the other day(Trough Creek) other hikers had ice cleats on and advised we not try going up. We had been to it a few times so we obliged! Hoping to get back down to the Virginia's this spring and hopefully fall 🍁🍂

@hikingoutdoorfamily 5 ай бұрын

Beautiful waterfall. I have also really started to appreciate the changing leaves and am able to appreciate the beauty of it. Nice that the park had that nature center.

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

I honestly never really noticed the leaves until our fall trip in 2020. Ever since, I really pay attention. Doesn’t hurt to be in a really special place like blackwater either!

@pennsylvaniaforestadventurer 5 ай бұрын

When I realized the leaves are the same colors in spring, especially if we hadn't had any sunny days...I find leaf peeping in the spring just as colorful. Driving Route 6 is something we used to do every spring and fall. Need to get back to those trips. Just driving up to elevation in the spring, the color show is so cool!

@WALTERZOLNA 5 ай бұрын

Blackwater Falls state park is one of the few places I would consider returning to every year, it really is that high on the list for me and wow you really hit it perfectly at peak! I really liked that opening song you used its one of my favorites in the youtube audio catalog, I feel a sense of nostalgia any time I hear it. I was curious about what you refered to as Pendelton falls vista. I remember seeing that marked somewhere on a map when i visited - the falls themselves. I found a manmade outflow from the lake by the visitor center and thought that may have been Pendleton Falls, but looks like its a real waterfall deeper into the canyon? That will be a side quest for my next visit to see if there is a way to get down to it.

@mountainsintomemories 5 ай бұрын

Yeah, there's not many places I'd consider revisiting at this point in our journey, but I could make a really good case for Blackwater Falls SP. I would like to actually find Pendleton Falls; from what little research I just did, it seems to be an off trail type of thing. There's 2 vistas, Pendleton Point (on the same side as the falls) and Pendleton Falls Vista (which is on the other side of the gorge). I could definitely spend another weekend there, using one day to locate Pendleton Falls, and the other to get to the vista on the road past Lindy Point. The song "For the Love of" is a recent discovery. I do really like it! I had to doctor it some, for the intro to get to the good part quickly, but I think it turned out pretty good. I've been recently finding some good stuff on the Audio Library, which keeps delaying my getting a subscription to Epidemic Sound.

@WALTERZOLNA 5 ай бұрын

@@mountainsintomemories there is lots of good stuff on the YT audio library. I think it depends alot on what genre of music you prefer. I really like the kind of tracks that blend into the background, the real ambient kind of stuff. Epidemic Sound has alot more of that, but you can certainly find great free tracks on YT. I have about 300 or so favorited and I still use many of them.