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West Virginia Visit — State #47

After our lovely Charlottesville house sit, Bob and I rented a car to drive to West Virginia to visit our 47th state with just Montana, North Dakota, and Hawaii yet to visit.  We stayed in Lewisburg, WV, about a 2 hour drive from Charlottesville.  Lewisburg is a small town of about 4,000 located in Greenbrier County (Greenbrier is a popular name in these parts).  It has a cute historic downtown and lots of opportunities for hiking.

The City Hall building
Carnegie Hall built in 1902 — one of 4 halls in the US named for Andrew Carnegie who provided a portion of the funding for the building. In addition to being a performance theater it also houses art exhibits.
The historic General Lewis hotel where we had cocktails one evening

One of the best parts of our stay was a visit to Beartown State Park an ara of massive fragmented boulders and deep crevasses surrounded by almost rain forests-like vegetation.  It is a short hike along a boardwalk but really unique.  We even saw a bit of “wildlife.”

Starting on the boardwalk into the park
The rainforest-like vegetation
A hairy boulder
The boardwalk trail through the boulders
A natural window
The trail narrows
Our “wildlife” sighting — there were lots of these little guys around — which reminded Bob of one of his few kid-friendly jokes
 

The Greenbrier River Trail is a 78 mile long trail that is a repurposed former railroad that follows the Greenbrier River.  The trail is used for hiking, biking, cross country skiing, and horse back riding.   There are a number of campsites and other lodging opportunities along the route.  Bob and I did an 8.2 mile out-and -back section starting at Horrock, not far from the Beartown State Park.

A mile marker along the route and a glimpse of the Greenbrier River
A beautiful house on an island in the River
We walked through a 430 foot long tunnel along the route.
The other entrance to the tunnel
A better view of the Greenbrier River and the Monongahela National Forest

The morning of our second day in West Virginia, we spent walking around the very, gorgeous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs.  This historic landmark has been open since 1778.  Along with the many hotel amenities and natural beauty, the site also contains natural mineral springs which were the original draw for visitors.

Fun facts about the Resort:

If you follow golf, you may know that this is the home of the Greenbrier Classic which is played around the 4th of July every year.

While we were there, the Houston Texans were staying at the resort and holding their training camp.

Our first experience of the Greenbrier was unexpected. We stopped to check out the Amtrak Station in White Sulphur Springs and stumbled onto an amazing Christmas store — run by the Greenbrier.
Walking up to the hotel -– if you don’t want to stay here you can rent one of the cottages or houses on the property.
One of the many floral landscapes on the property
The ballroom
The bar off of the ballroom
The indoor pool in the hotel
A view of some of the grounds from the north entrance
A group getting ready for horse riding — the resort also offers Segway tours, tennis, golf, skeet, spa services
Part of the golf course at the resort
A cute sculpture near the club house
The infinity pool — and gorgeous view

From the resort, we drove into downtown White Sulphur Springs.  It was pretty small, but there was a nice memorial to the victims of last year’s flood and a store related to the DIY network show — Barnwood Builders.  We were not familiar with the show but had read articles about it in the local papers, as the six individuals on the show are from West Virginia.

The sign about the flood in front of the stone bridge memorial
The creek level when not flooded
A historic building in the park with the memorial
A nice message from city hall

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