This year’s autumn trip was to West Virginia. In the past, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway have always been my pick for fall color. However in recent years those places have become over-crowded. I began looking for alternative locations to visit during the fall season, and this year I decided on West Virginia.

Monongahela National Forest

Monongahela National Forest was my first stop of the trip. The popular Blackwater Falls is located there in Davis, West Virginia. I had visited the waterfall in 2007 (image above), but I wanted to come here and spend a little more time than just day. The image below is from this trip.

We arrived on Sunday, October 15th. All the foliage in the area was at peak fall color and to my surprise I noticed at how few people there were visiting the area. I would have thought a beautiful place like this in the mountains would have been busy, especially the ‘leaf peepers’. My stay was during the week though, but I still expected to see more people.

Usually I tow my camper and stay in a campground. It’s always easier to work out of a place that is like your home and my little dog Milo always feels more comfortable staying there. However, with the temperatures in the 30s at night and the heater not working, we opted to leave the camper behind and stay in a hotel. We found a nice little place called The Inn at Canaan Valley, just outside of Davis on SR-32, Appalachian Highway. The room was recently renovated, very clean and best of all, are pet friendly! The people are nice, and we enjoyed our stay. If anyone is planning a trip to the Davis, West Virginia area, I would highly recommend this place!

We had a great place to stay, but we were not as fortunate in finding a great place to eat. During our stay, we tried a couple of restaurants in Davis. I always had good luck at pubs, so on the first day there, we stopped in for dinner. I ordered a simple grilled chicken and fries; my wife ordered a chicken pot pie, and a hamburger patty for the dog. What we got was basically a lump of coal for the chicken, crust with no filling at all for the pot pie, and a hamburger patty that the dog wouldn’t eat. It didn’t get any better for the rest of the trip!

On Monday we spent the day in Blackwater Falls State Park. The fall color was the prettiest here! There is a wooden boardwalk that descends down to the base of the waterfall. It was raining and there was a lot of water pouring over the waterfall. Driving through the park we came to an overlook, looking down on the waterfall. I shot the waterfall on both digital and film. This turned out to be my favorite shot of the trip!

Dolly Sods Wilderness

On Tuesday we drove a rough two-way, one-lane gravel road for about 20 miles up to an area called Dolly Sods. When you get to the top, you can see for miles as well as the town of Davis below. The ridge is rock covered, and very scenic! The problem I had that day was it was misting rain, temperature in the upper 30s, with a strong wind! I did manage to get a few shots, although I had intended on going back with the 14mm lens, but never did.

On Wednesday, we checked out of the hotel and started traveling south. The next stop was the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park in Cass, West Virginia. As luck would have it, only one train ran that day, and we missed it! On this day, the sky was clear and I didn’t get any satisfactory shots from that location.

After that stop, we went to Babcock State Park to photograph the Glad Creek Mill. Again, the light wasn’t the best and I wasn’t happy with the results of the shoot. This ended our trip and we headed home.

This was a short trip and I hadn’t planned it very well. My plans for 2024 is to return to this area with the camper and spend 10 to 14 days in the area. Cass Railroad and Babcock State Park will be on that list.

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