Beautiful and Scenic West Virginia

This morning we drove around this area for some nice photo opportunities.  Our first stop was at the New River Gorge visitors center.  Here are some pictures from that area.  The New River Gorge Bridge was completed in 1977 and is an engineering marvel.  The span of the arch is 1700' and it is 876' from the river to the bottom of the arch.  One day in October of each year they close the bridge to vehicular traffic and allow pedestrians including those wanting to parachute from the bridge to the river.

The gorge looking east from the visitors center

 

The visitors center had some information about the coal mining history of this region.

 

Then we took a drive around the mountains to get a few glimpses of the bridge.

 

And this was Phyllis' great picture

Along the way we saw some rock climbers on the bluffs.  You might have to zoom in to the center of this shot but there is a man about half way up-or-down?

 

Then it was off for some pictures of waterfalls that Jo and I saw yesterday on our way into the campground.  This one was on the side of the road and flows into New River.

This is Kanawha Falls on the Kanawha River.  There is a man-made weir just above these falls and for some reason above that dam and the lake it creates the river name changes to New River that flows through the New River Gorge.