Find the top rated hiking trails in West Virginia, whether you're looking for an easy short hiking trail or a long hiking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a hiking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Hiked alone on 5/21/22, very easy flat trail. My hike started at the SW trailhead to the descent where the railroad tressel was located, rested and returned to car. This area is very isolated, did not see another person on this nearly 3 hr hike. Several reviews complained about how poorly maintained the trail was, my experience was this trail is no worse maintained than most grass/dirt rail trails I have hiked.
From Parkersburg to mile marker 33 they have put down new gravel. In most places it’s been compacted and is smooth to ride. There is some spots of loose deep gravel that will slow you down. In Petroleum there is a covered picnic and bike repair stand with restroom. Past #33 it is still smooth pea gravel and good to ride to #44 that’s as far as I got. I would do it again. The only warning I have is the gates are closed and can be tricky to get around, one person actually took a bad fall trying to get around one. If you don’t feel confident walk your bike around.
I rode the southern part of the Rend Trail today, up to the second trestle, which unfortunately remains closed due to being "critically structurally deficient". I am not an engineer, but it appeared that the steel substructure under the second section of the deck (from the south end) has slipped from its intended position. Unfortunately, it's probably very expensive to fix something like that in such a remote area.
As for the rest of the trail? It's quite scenic. Beautiful forest and mountain views. Sheer drops off to the east that are steep enough I'd need a topo map to tell you how far they drop, and equally steep mountain on the west side. Coal baron Rend built the trail in 1901-1904 for $350,000, and it's no wonder it cost so much, it's a small wonder the trail exists at all. Many rail lines have small areas that are challenging, more so in West Virginia, but on this one pretty much the whole route would be challenging to build.
Thus, TrailLink is correct that this is, technically, a rail-trail. But the farther you get from the southern trailhead, the less it feels like one. It gets narrower, eventually becoming a singletrack through a short meadow before opening up a bit before the closed trestle. It's also about 240 feet of elevation gain from the base to the closed trestle, which is officially 1.27 miles. The plus side is that you could likely coast most of the way back, but it's definitely rougher than the nice, crushed-limestone covered rail trail you may be expecting if you've ridden the Greenbrier River Trail.
There's also a Church "Loop" trail that you can hike from the Rend Trail, which takes you to the Thurmond Baptist Church, which from the exterior appears to be in fairly good condition for being in the middle of the woods. I put the "Loop" in quotes since I couldn't figure out how to make a loop out of it. It is definitely not bike-accessible, and still has some trees down across the trail from the hurricane last fall.
In summary, this trail is best combined with exploring Thurmond, and perhaps some of the other short, nearby trails. Expect some work but also some nice scenery, and you'll likely ride away happy.
We did a 39.1 mile ride on the Elk River Rail trail last Friday and it was decent. TrailLink states that the trail starts at Duck in the north but it is actually surfaced from Frametown to the north. We first checked the trail at Gassaway which the Elk River Trail Foundation Facebook page said it was open to. The surface from Gassaway to Frametown is pretty rough gravel so we skipped that part. We rode from Frametown to Ivydale and back. The trail is surfaced with fine packed limestone gravel and overall is decent. There are drainage issues that have created some small ruts at places but nothing terrible. All the bridges are nicely decked. The Elk River flows alongside the trail and is a pleasant, pretty river. As far as trailside amenities the only thing in this section are two new restrooms. There are no benches, pavilions or such. There is a small store at Duck that was open but we did not stop. At Ivydale we met a state park ranger who said the trail from Harland to Duck was now part of the state park system and they were working on upgrades and indicated benches would be part of that. He also said the trail would eventually extend through Gassaway up to somewhere around Burnsville. The ride was decent but I would not go out of my way to ride this trail - at least not yet. If you're in the area and want to ride, go for it. There's nothing else nearby. Hopefully, improvements will continue and this trail will only get better.
I started a hike at Hendricks and traveled north. The trail opens into a great hiking trail after a mile or so of road. There are great waterfalls and vistas along the way. The trip from Douglas to Thomas was my least favorite, not great trail and views, perfectly fine for bikers, but slow going on foot. Then finished with a bite at the Farm Up Table before heading back down to Hendricks.
If you’re a strong male and have a weapon, it’s a cool trail to be on. If you’re a single woman who isn’t a martial arts expert, I would advise against it. The parking area has a lot of nefarious looking people loitering about. When I first pulled up there were two cop cars questioning shady looking people. Sad that a nice trail is in such a bad area
Only a 15-minute drive from the famed Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs lies the southern trailhead of the Greenbrier River Trail, a 77-mile rail-trail that cuts through the center of West Virginia. While green mountains abound, they are hidden from view on the flat, tree-lined trail which hugs the Greenbrier River as it threads the valleys of the Appalachian Mountain Region. In fact, rarely was the river out of sight as we pedaled along this “Zen trail” (our term for a trail that lacks visual variety - which some people prefer).
Wildlife is abundant here and being in black bear country, we were sure to keep up a constant and loud conversation in the hope of dissuading any from lumbering onto the trail. (No, this wasn’t an imaginary concern – like the sound of dueling banjos — bear scat had been pointed out to us on a previous ride and we’d seen bears in the mountains on several occasions.)
The trail was cool, shady, and well-maintained and we passed only a handful of others on the trail. There was no nearby civilization, so we were glad to have brought plenty of water. This time we only rode the southern end, but hope to go back for the northern end in the future!
A brewery and a fantastic distillery are not far from the trail back near the airport outside of Lewisburg.
Definitely one of my favorites! The hike follows a gorgeous stream full of rocks and moss.
I love the path except that it just dumps you onto the should next to the detention center on the Martinsburg side.
Additionally you have to be on the side of the highway for several of the road crossings, it's good that you're not just riding the shoulder the whole time but during these crossings you face those risks.
Other than that it's a really nice path very smooth and of course you have the beautiful WV scenery
I first rode this trail around 25 years ago and at the time thought it was the worst railtrail I had ever ridden and in my mind it occupied that spot from then on. I went back to see if the trail was any better after about 25 years since I had heard of improvements and there weren’t any recent TrailLink reviews. Sadly it wasn’t better and may be worse.
When I first rode it around 1996 much of the trail was being used by ATVs and in bad shape. Additionally the trail dead-ended at a wire fence near Spelter because of ground contamination. The gate is now gone and you can ride through to County Rt 19/33 now.
I started at the Clarksburg end and right away there is no formal parking for the trailhead. You just park along the road by an abandoned glass factory. There is new signage and at the beginning the trail is paved which it was not years ago. The pavement only lasts for 1/4 mile though and then turns to gravel. There are also some ditches and steel plates from apparent ditching work. This gravel is okay but not great.
After this the gravel changed to 1” size and was progressively harder to ride. The scenery would have been nice if I could have looked a bit but the trail was constantly challenging. At 3.5 miles the bottom fell out. At this point the trail turned to what can only be called an offroad track. The gravel was gone thankfully and the surface smooth, when it didn’t consist of huge mud holes and some tire tracks. This “trail” is obviously being used by vehicles of all types and I figured out why later. For the next 3 miles you constantly are trying to avoid this mud and water and hitting occasionally rocky areas. One section about a 100 ft long was filled with 4” gravel. The last half mile or so before Spelter is gravel again and halfway decent but not great.
As I stopped at the end for a break before going back I realized a huge issue with this trail - not a single gate was closed on it. You could drive it with the appropriate vehicle end-to-end. In fact, on the way back I passed an ATV and a pickup truck using it.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone go to ride this trail - it’s just not worth it when there are better options nearby such as the West Fork River Trail or the Mon River and Deckers Creek trails in Morgantown.
This trail seems to have been designed by a highway engineer with not enough consultation with bikers or landscape architects or conservationists. Its essentially a bike highway, graded, paved and fenced just like the highway it runs right along. The land around the trail is aggressively mowed so there is no vegetation to support wildlife or provide shade for trail users. Very noisy from highway traffic which at times is only a few a few feet away. We won't be back.
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