New River Gorge

Linda, Joe and I headed to West Virginia today for a visit with Emily.  She was a wonderful hostess and we had a great time.  This is sort of our trip in reverse because it is too difficult to sort pictures properly on my iPad. 

We went to the New River Gorge National Park.  The newest national park dedicated in 2020. 

We went to the visitor center for some great views of the gorge

And bridge.  Plus, I found a penny smashing machine at a nearby gift shop!

Emily’s friend Keiran joined us for the day.

We hiked the Kaymoor Miner’s trail which was rated “strenuous.”  Because my pictures are in reverse, this was after we finished the climb back up the 800+ stairs.

It was a lot of stairs.

And also a very steep trail to get to the stairs. 

It was enough to about put you into a trance going down.  Emily had told us we would probably want to take a shower afterwards.  My response was that I could control my speed to where I would not sweat much. Famous last words.  With the humidity and elevation change it would have taken 3+ hours instead of the 1 1/2 hours to not have sweated.  We also went on a scenic drive, ate at Pies and Pints, and had a very refreshing key lime pie made by Emily.  Maybe next time we will go in a longer but less strenuous hike. A highly recommended trip.