Return to Helvetia

Carole and I love to visit small towns when we go to West Virginia. The state is home to some truly wonderful small villages, many of which we have toured and a few of which we found so charming we have to go back to them.


One of these places that drew us back was Helvetia. This little spot is very tiny, even by most ways one would measure a town. However, it's truly a grand place in so many other ways. Settled in 1869 by mainly Swiss and German immigrants, it retains to this day that Germanic quality if not by descent, then definitely by design. If I ever could, I'd live there. The place exudes charm and peacefulness, and shines with natural beauty and with the careful hand of its modern inhabitants.

If you get the chance, I heartily recommend a trip to Helvetia where time is in a holding pattern, where a hearty appetite can be satisfied, and where silence and calm are constant companions.

One of the great shops in Helvetia.

Sign for The Hutte, the signature restaurant and business of the village.

The food in this place is absolutely wonderful. Bring your appetite. They serve traditional German and Swiss fare in addition to other types of meals. If you go on Sunday, they recommend reservations. We arrived on a Sunday without such, but they fit us in. The place was packed to capacity, but they found time to find us a spot at a table and to make us feel most welcome.

The buffet board in our section of the dining room the Sunday we were there. The food was great! My favorite was the traditional kraut. My goodness, it was delicious!

A brief look into one of the other dining rooms. That one was where we ate the first time we visited The Hutte years before.

Dance hall where performances are regularly held. Quiet the day we were there.

The bridge leading across the creek to the public library and the history museum.

This has to be the single coolest looking library in North America. It has expanded a tad since we were last there.

The local history museum. It has never been open when we were there, so Carole took the occasion to peek through the windows.

This place was once owned by the town. When we last visited, the place was the subject of sealed bids. Someone landed it and now it's a private home.

The general store and post office of Helvetia, WV.

The post office. I'm not sure what the busts were all about, but I assume it was part of a historical representation.

Helvetia WV souvenir clothing. Another of the busts. I should have asked who the sculptures represented, but I was too busy taking photographs.

Where We're Headed for Vacation:

I took all of the following photos in West Virginia in 2004 when we visited the area around Helvetia, WV. We had a wonderful time there and have decided that we want to return there for another shot at seeing some of the stuff we missed, plus seeing again some of the spots we loved so much the first time we were there.

A lot of places we visit we get enough of them so that we don't want to go back after one visit. But there are a few spots we see where we feel like we have to return. This part of West Virginia is one of them. The first time we went I didn't get a chance to climb some of the mountains I wanted to hit, plus we missed a few parks that were in the area, along with some places like a sugar maple farm and a cheese store that was high on our list to visit.

We found this haunted house by accident while joyriding on a lonely gravel road on top of a high mountain. We want to go back and see if it's still there.

A super-cool waterfall called Shupe's Chute in Holly River State Park. I'll be hitting this place with the new camera to get some high-quality photographs.

The Falls on the North Fork of the Holly River.

This was beside our campground at Holly River State Park in early June of 2004. The creek was way up due to heavy rainfall. It rained virtually the entire time we were there. I'm hoping for more mild weather this time.

A footbridge in the village of Helvetia, West Virginia.

Library and other buildings in Helvetia.

Along the river in Audra State Park.

A peaceful swimming hole in Kubrabow State Forest.

Vacation Debate

I'm lobbying for West Virginia. Carole wants to try out the mountains of north Georgia. Since I lived in the mountains of north Georgia and cut my teeth hiking there as a teenager, I'd rather go back to West Virginia. Specifically, to a part of the state where we haven't been since 2004.


To bolster my argument, here are some photos I took on that specific trip. I took these with my first digital camera which remains one of the best cameras I've ever had. It eventually went on the fritz, but while it lasted it was a great machine, even though it was only 4 megapixels. I still admire the photos I took with it. Like almost all of my digital cameras, it was a Canon.


On that trip we targeted a place called Holly River State Park. In those days we were still tent camping since we hadn't yet been raided by that huge black bear when we camped at Standing Indian Campground near Murphy NC. That's the experience that convinced us to go with a hard-sided trailer and forgo the tent camping when in state parks and National Forest campgrounds where there are likely to be lots of bears habituated to humans and their food.


Among the things that I recall about this early June 2004 trip was that it rained incessantly and intensely, and that the scenery was gorgeous. The waterfalls were especially pretty because of the overcast skies and the extremely heavy water flow in the creeks. Since it has been so long since we've been, I would really like to go back there.


This spot is called Mill Creek Falls. Every state in the south has at least fifty Mill Creeks and probably that many Mill Creek Falls. This particular one is in a state forest in West Virginia. The pool below the falls is begging for swimmers. I would have used it for a swimming hole on that trip but even though it was June, the weather was unseasonably cold and the temperatures never broke 70 the whole time we were there. This day it was around 65 or so--much too cool for a swim. If you look, you can see a cabin through the trees. You can rent it--and the three others nearby. You can't beat that place for atmosphere.

This place is called "The Hutte". It's a German restaurant in a German-centric village of Helvetia there in West Virginia. This was a great place to pause and spend a few hours. There are several maple syrup farms in the vicinity, also. Keep in mind that while West Virginia is technically part of the South, it's far enough north, and the mountains high enough, so that sugar maples thrive there. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the town.

One of the dining rooms in The Hutte where we had our most excellent lunch.

This is the actual public library of Helvetia, West Virginia. A great place to take photos, but it was closed the day we were there.

The Falls of the North Branch of the Holly River. This waterfall was exceptionally beautiful, and flowing like nobody's business the day I took this photo.

Just down from the falls above is this one. Called Shupe's Chute, the entire river is funneled through this tiny crevice in the rock. The noise that day was deafening. At the base of the chute is an absolutely spectacular swimming hole. Once again, it was far too cold to try out on that June day in 2004.

On a drive on a lonely gravel mountain road, we stumbled upon this wonderfully creepy abandoned farmhouse. If you embiggen the photo and look, you will see an equally creepy denizen sitting on the peak of the roof on the far right. (And is that an ephemeral spirit standing in the doorway??!!)

A cropped enlargement of the host of the haunted house.

Yep. I'd really like to go back to this part of West Virginia. Let the debate begin...