Blue Bend Recreation Area

We're back from our week-long trip into the mountains of West Virginia. When Carole and I were younger we would vacation in WV at least once per year. Later, we got out of the habit of traveling north to those mountains and journeyed elsewhere. But lately we've had the urge to re-visit the state. So we hooked up the Casita and went to stay at the Blue Bend Recreation Area deep in the Monogahela National Forest about fifteen miles north of Lewisburg.

The campground is a classic site created and developed by the old Civilian Conservation Corps, that finest of mildly socialist programs instituted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That organization did so much to provide the USA with excellent recreational sites. Many decades after its demise, we are still enjoying the campgrounds, trails, lakes, dams, pools, picnic areas, and playgrounds those hard working citizens toiled to make for the generations that have come and gone since those days.

Weather-wise, we couldn't have had it better. Some of our more recent camping trips have been tough due to the rain and inclement weather we have suffered. But this vacation was perfect in that regard. It never rained, rarely even clouded over, and we left the hideous heat and humidity of the Charlotte area behind to find high temperatures in the mid to upper 70s and lows in the 50s every night. We had perfect sleeping weather and with the fresh air blowing in through the screens each evening I dreamed vividly. Two days back, and I already miss that place terribly.

Carole and I both got in some good hiking. I climbed the mountainsides in the Big Draft Wilderness Area which lies across the creek from our campground (via a swinging bridge), and Carole joined me on shorter, developed hikes on extremely well-engineered trails at Cranberry Glades Natural Area, the Falls of Hill Creek, and at Beartown State Park.

We had a blast!

Carole prepared her usual five-star camping meals. We did not lose any weight. She worked on some new Dutch oven recipes that were all excellent, as always. Breakfast, lunch, and supper were all feasts, each day.

I'll try to post some details, either in text, or photographs, or video--or all three--in the coming days.

I took this from a viewpoint on Brown Mountain in the Big Draft Wilderness Area looking down on a farm that abuts the wilderness.

Our campsite, which was enormous.

Carole, standing on the swinging bridge that allows access to the opposite side of Anthony Creek.

The swimming hole at Blue Bend, and the spot for which it's named--the big bend in Anthony Creek. The water was clear and cold and great for swimming on a summer day (even if it was only 77 degrees!). Those slate "beaches" and retaining walls and picnic shelters were all constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1933 and 1935 and are still in use today.

A selfie I took deep in the Big Draft Wilderness Area on a five-mile loop hike.

A shot I took from a picnic area at over 4400 feet above sea level on the Mountain Scenic Highway. All of the peaks along the drive and around us were over 4,000 feet above sea level. Lots of dark spruce trees cover the peaks and ridges here.

Lots of amazing shops and restaurants in Lewisburg, WV which was not many miles from the campground. We spent the day here having a great time. They even have a top-notch bookstore where I bought a Bukowski volume I didn't have. Voted "America's Coolest Small Town" not too long ago. Well deserved, I think. I'd live there, no problem.