My review and take on this park/forest is from the perspective of a mountain biker and trail…read morerunner/hiker. I did not camp here nor stay in a cabin, so those are things on which I cannot comment. For mountain biking, it's mostly very good-quality and well-maintained single-track but with few man-made features (but some!). It's fun, challenging, and a good deal of uphill. For free, you cannot really ask for more. For hiking and trail running, it's also a first-rate experience: a beautiful, scenic, park and a lot of good trails. The staff I encountered were very friendly and helpful, as well.

This is the cleanest, most well maintained state park I've ever visited. I rented a cabin for three…read moredays and was blown away that it was cleaner than most hotels I've stayed in, and in some cases more modern. Truly immaculate. Some highlights: Delivery of wood for the campfire/fireplace. Bathroom was spotless. All towels and linens were clean and fresh. Super pleasant folks working for the state forest. Almost everything in the cabin that could be was also local/made in WV. Quiet. Remote. Honestly, I can't say enough good things. I had the most relaxing three days here. In no way is this "roughing it." I look forward to when I return again.

Meadow Creek Campground is a terrific place stay outdoors while exploring around New River Gorge…read moreNational Park. When first planning out my itinerary for visiting the park, I had researched that there were plentiful campgrounds located within the area. So...I knew I would be camping out somewhere for my first night at New River Gorge. I just didn't know where exactly I would end my day. Well...after finishing hanging out at the Grand View section of the park in late afternoon, I was okay to start looking for a campground. I always refer to the trusty app on my phone called Campendium, to find my campsites. And as usual, Campendium did not disappoint! I quickly browsed all the reviews for Meadow Creek and was excited to come here. From the Grand View part of New River Gorge (which btw, is one of the primary highlights of the park), it was just 17 miles to drive to Meadow Creek. And best of all the location of the campground was in the proper direction for my next destination, being Sandstone Falls. Let me give some details about how simple it is come to Meadow Creek and get a campsite for the night... and yes, it has to be one of the easiest spots (in terms of finding a place to rest at while on a whim) I have ever come across along my journeys around the USA. - Cell phone reception works fine in the area, so simply plug "Meadow Creek Campground" into Google Maps and you'll easily be directed here. - It is free to camp out! How cool. Once I arrived, the instruction board mentioned to just pick a campsite and it's yours! How simple! - There must have been about 25 - 30 campsites available for choosing, and basically there was no one here. I had my pick of any site. - All the sites were situated on soft, fluffy grass, which always is beneficial when pitching a tent. This way you can have a gentle, comfortable sleep. - The sites all had barbecue pits. They were well spaced apart from each other to feel like you have privacy. You can start charcoal grills also. - A very interesting fact is this...trailers and RVs are not allowed!!! Prohibited! That's so peculiar? Usually, you have RV sites and parks that don't allow tents. But here it was the opposite. So nice for me, someone who carries a tent in the trunk of my car, to feel like I was prioritized, lol. Btw, I noticed the folks that were spending the night here actually slept in their cars rather than pitching tents. - They have vault toilets houses but they're extremely well maintained and clean. In fact, when I stepped inside one of them, it smelt beautifully, with a nice fragrance. - Located just 2.5 miles down the road is the Sandstone General Store and Eatery. This local little joint has groceries, gas and supplies...ideal for picking up anything to cook on your barbecue. You could even purchase prepared sandwiches if you don't feel like cooking. And prices here were extremely cheap, considering there's not much around to this part of the park. - You can do some hiking/walking right along the New River to get some fresh air and appreciate the woodsy/forestry setting. - When I visited back in the middle of May of 2022, the weather was perfect and not too chilly at night. Couldn't have asked for a better evening with a few stars up in the sky. - I believe you can stay up to 14 evenings here, all for free! You can camp for free, use the facilities for free, and occupy a campsite all for free. Thank you to the National Parks Services for Meadow Creek Campground! Although Meadow Creek was a wonderful experience for me...I do need to mention some parts that were a little bit of a letdown... 1. Cell phone coverage in this specific campground was minimal. Yet, when I walked down the creek area, my reception worked just fine. Hmmm? 2. Okay, yes, the train tracks. During the night I did hear trains running on the tracks that were very loud. Still, I don't mind these types of things as I'm an easy sleeper. 3. This is going a bit overboard, no there aren't any AMP power stations, lol. Overall, I can't say enough good things about Meadow Creek Campground. It was certainly one of the best highlights to my time visiting New River Gorge National Park.

Never a bad time! Repeat customer! I love that you can wake up and throw your pole in the water…read morewithout going anywhere. Best campground I've been to

This is the best campground I've stayed at. The sites were clean and clear in view. Each had a fire…read morering and picnic tables. Rvs welcome. The bathrooms were the cleanest I've seen. I couldn't believe it. Nice showers, nice sink area and clean. Area for washing dishes. Couple playgrounds. Sun site and shade sites and every single person there smiled and said hello. Lots of respect here because at 10pm on the nose, everyone got quiet in an instant. That almost never happens! I loved camping here. Check out is 12pm! A bundle of wood is $6 and there's a lot in there. I hope I get to come back.

We had to stop here for a dump station. People were nice and helpful. It's conveniently located…read morenext to the main road. It has a nice playground.

Second session- House Party: We came to check out the camp for our son, Michael. So he could see…read morewhat to expect was for next summer. Currently raining- very little to do. The camp is quite large, homemade waterslide, The Staff are fantastic and pleasant.

The cabins are awesome, the view and sound at the river retreat are priceless. The cabins are…read morealways very clean and well maintained. We were here twice last year and three times this year. Hot tubs sitting with a view of the river is a bonus. If you are into kayaking or taking in the local fare this is the perfect place. Lewisburg is only 20 minutes away and there is great coffee, wings and pizza. The staff and owners are the best. They will drop you off with your kayaks and take your vehicle back to the campground. Yes there are trains on the other side of the river, but it only adds character to the location. Cellphone service and internet access is intermittent, another plus in my opinion, it lets us get away from work and spend quality time together. If you are looking for a place to get away this is the place for you.

This campground is about a 30-minute drive from The Greenbrier Hotel and is located on the…read moreGreenbrier rushing river. We were in the area visiting Smooth Ambler distillery and we were happy to find so much to do within an hour drive. When you first pull in, the check-in area doubles as an outdoor adventure company's post. I assume it's the same owner. The kayaks and canoes are over to the side and would've been totally tempting had it not have been like 40 degrees and rainy when we were there. This was unlike any campground that I'd ever been to before. It's privately owned and most of the sites were already occupied by the seasonal RVs, whose occupants weren't even there. There was one other RV that had an actual person camping. We were in site 24, which was the first site that wasn't seasonally occupied. The pad was narrow, but there were parking spots parallel from the road. The parking spots made good back in opportunities. With full hookups and cable tv, I would consider and did consider this as a favorable campground. The downside... this campground runs between a busy road and a river. On the other side of the river is a train track. If you're looking for tranquility and not use to the sound of passing cars and random trains, then this isn't the place for you. The bathhouse was quite new and you could tell that it wasn't often occupied. In addition to the RV sites, there were tent/popup sites as well as cabins... heck, you can even rent an RV that includes a hot tub.

Greg Berry, the owner of this campground, is a spineless coward and a liar who not only disrespects…read morehis customers, but also bullies his employees. As inviting as the riverfront camp sites may seem, do yourself a favor and stay far away from any business Greg has to offer, to include his rafting business. Just a short summary of my experience at the campground: * Booked my reservation for a specific campsite weeks in advance. * Showed up to camp and someone else was in the spot I reserved, forcing me into a campsite that was less desirable. * Greg said that I could move the following day to my originally reserved campsite for the remainder of my stay. * 2 days before vacation had ended, I was told by one of his employees that I needed to move once again, because the campsite I was in had been reserved. * I refused to move, stating that the owner had already given permission to stay in the current campsite. * I requested to speak with the owner multiple times, apparently, he was too afraid to own up to his word and speak with me directly. * Instead, I was threatened with a call to the state police for trespassing on a campsite that I had permission to stay on and had already paid for. * Their employee also moved other campers' tents WITHOUT their permission, so if you like people pilfering through your belongings, I suppose this may be an enjoyable place for you to camp. * I requested a refund for the remaining night I had booked, which was refused and I was forced to vacate the premises. Stay far away from here, go camp somewhere nice where you don't have to deal with the cancer of society that this entitled hillbilly is. Have a nice vacation somewhere else near Hinton.

Great place for the price! Very nice and clean. Easy access to the river for what we needed. Would…read moredefinitely recommend to anyone that wants to enjoy Hinton and the river. Only complaint is chairs on the porch need replaced,and a fire pit would be nice.

My husband and I like to hike so on our recent visit to Roanoke we started exploring options. We…read morelearned that McAfees Knob is the most photographed spot on Appalachian trail. We were a bit nervous about an 8 mile hike, but decided we were going to take it on. That hike was no joke, it kicked my butt. However, I did it and I am not someone in amazing shape by any means. There were some very steep/uphill parts and some stretches that were mostly flat. Trail was well marked. I was happy for the variation and we stopped as needed. It is doable, its just long. They say it takes you about 4 hours, which was accurate for us as we arrived around 10am, finished about 2pm. We did the AT trial up and decided to go for the fire road (runs basically parallel but isn't as strenuous) back as we were already tried. I highly recommend this if you not a serious hiker. Most everything I read kept saying you need to get their early as it gets so busy. That wasn't our experience, but it was an unseasonably colder, windy day so that probably deterred people. We also went on a Thursday to help reduce crowd as recommended. Note there are no bathrooms near parking. We found an outhouse near one of the camping sites about 2/3 way up, which we were grateful for. I am not sure it is being maintained regularly, so bring your own TP and hand sanitizer. Now, the view once you get to the top is absolutely beautiful. You can see out so far while you sit/stand on the rocky overlook. I even slowly inched my way out to the very tip of the rock to get the full 360 view. Breathtaking! We brought some snacks to eat up there to replenish (do this) and enjoy the views. We didn't stay up there as long as I would have liked as it was quite cold with the wind when we no longer had the tree cover. Dress appropriately! After we finished the hike, we took a long nap at our Airb&B. I am not sure I would choose to do it again, but I feel very accomplished that we completed this trail and enjoyed the views and our picutres very much.

What an awesome hike. Our new Thanksgiving tradition has been to go on a hike and this was our pick…read morethis year. We got there around 10am since it's a 3 hour drive from Charlotte. I thought it would be empty on Thanksgiving, but it was pretty crowded. We got a parking spot just fine, but the lot was fairly full. The hike is rated as strenuous, but I thought it was moderate. It's about 4 miles to Mcafee Knob from the parking lot making it 8 miles round trip. We took the Appalachian Trail on the way there and the fire road on the way back. The fire road is flatter and wider--an easier hike overall. Parts of the AT were covered in leaves making it a bit hard to hike. Everyone says the last mile is hard. It's uphill but I didn't find it to be too steep. The views at the end are gorgeous. Luckily it wasn't too crowded and we didn't have to wait to get our picture. We didn't stay at the top long because it was incredibly windy which made it pretty cold even though the rest of the hike was comfortable. The whole hike with stops took us just under 4 hours. With views and difficulty combined, we thought it was a great hike!

Absolute worst camping experience of my entire life. The people running this place had the nerve to…read morecall me literally the morning of my reservation and tell me my reservation was not being honored, the last thing I want to hear when out of state and hundreds of miles away from home while on a trip I spent countless hours preparing for. Total bullshit. Ruined my whole day and tainted my visit to West Virginia and New River Gorge. Don't bother camping here unless you want to be moved to a shitty site with more noise and less privacy that you didn't pay for and don't want. I spent a considerable amount of time researching third-party websites for views and reviews of specific sites before booking. They granted me the indignity of having to camp literally right next to the one I paid for and reserved in advance while someone else camped in the site I booked and was looking forward to. They claim they overbooked, but it was a different site than mine and on a previous day - making it entirely irrelevant to my reserved site the day of - they just couldn't be bothered to ask the person in my reserved site to move now that others were opened. Instead of asking the double-booked person to move to the one I was given, they made it my problem. Extremely unprofessional and just plain wrong. It's ridiculous that they even have a system which supposedly allows for double-booking in the first place. I never would have booked the site they replaced mine with. I checked out the site but never checked in (the RV people were right on the other side of the trees behind my site, something I had intentionally tried to avoid), ended up camping for free at Grandview Sandbar Campground instead. If I wanted that site I would have reserved it, but I didn't and would not have. Completely defeats the purpose of making a reservation if they aren't going to honor it. Little Beaver State Park Campground is run by incompetent and inconsiderate people. Flawed booking system and inept individuals ruining a public institution. Total joke, shame on them. "We hope you don't mind". Damn right I mind, you took my money for a reservation you didn't keep! I hated my non-stay with a passion and will never be back.

Love this place. My getaway favorite walking path around the soothing moving lake. There's fishing…read moreand a few really nice picnic areas. Very clean and calm and a place to even relax with a good book (bring a chair) and enjoy the full bright sunshine and outstanding natural scenery.

It's true even if it's cliché. Spending time in the great outdoors can really change your…read moreperspective and give you a hopefulness that things will be alright. We decided to check out Paul's place because it was fairly close and he was so friendly on the phone when I called for more specific info. It's definitely a laid back and rustic environment but I was all in. Paul takes care of his customers and he was very adamant in teaching us the rules of the river before letting us launch. I had $60 in cash and he would only take $40 even thought the price was listed as $50. It's a great deal for you to kayak, paddle board and tube on the gorgeous river. We had it basically to ourselves that day and it was a revelation. The only thing I'd say is there needs to be upgrades to the life jackets. Most of them were child sized. However, all of the other equipment was well maintained. Please go and support this business!

Mr. Paul is just as good a person you would ever meet..... This is great for all ages and skill…read morelevels.... God Bless you Mr. Moody.

I was really looking forward to stopping here, especially to see the lighthouse, but visiting in…read morethe off season definitely took away from the experience. This area is known for the lake and for boating and outdoor recreation, so I understand that coming during a colder time probably put a slight damper on everything that should be taken with a grain of salt if you're reading this review. When we arrived there was no one in the office. It felt closed off and unattended. I wasn't able to go up into the lighthouse at all, which was super disappointing because for me it was the main draw. From the outside, the lighthouse was lovely to look at but I was really really hoping to be able to climb to the top. The rest of the grounds looked fine and this is definitely a place designed for overnight stays. I would definitely return but during the right season and when I am able to explore the lighthouse!

We absolutely loved our time at Summersville Lake Retreat & Campground. The staff is very friendly…read moreand helpful. The location is only 20-25 minutes from the New River Gorge area which makes visiting the bridge or downtown Fayetteville a breeze. The gift shop has a large selection of items just in case you forgot something or need a souvenir. There is a large community firepit and pavilion with Adirondack chairs. Each full hookup site also has it's own firepit with chairs. The property is well maintained. Make sure you take a walk to the hammock area...this was the kids favorite part! We already booked a trip back for next year and cannot wait to spend more time in WV.