Hiking New River Gorge and Shenandoah with Kids

A long road trip that travels through West Virginia and Virginia is not complete without stopping to explore a few National Parks. The kids and I were traveling from Lee's Summit to Brooklyn where my husband was working for the month. On the way up we made stops at both New River Gorge and Shenandoah National Park.

New River Gorge National Park

New River Gorge National Park is one of the few free National Parks in the United States. While it was beautiful, I definitely understood why it was free. Something about it felt different as far as the setup and amenities of the park. There was a lot of driving through neighborhoods and not so beautiful areas to get to the hikes and into the park.

With over 70,000 acres of land and being one of the oldest rivers there is a lot of natural history and beauty throughout the park. New River Gorge is known for its white water rafting and while we would have loved to experienced that, we only had a few hours at the park so that was not something we could fit into our day.

Instead, we chose to explore the park via the Tunnel Trail and the Sandstone Falls Trail. These gave us a good understanding of the park as a whole from above and below.

The overlook of New River Gorge is near the entrance to the Tunnel Trail. Making it a great first stop for a view of the park as a whole.

The Tunnel Trail was a fun, easy trail, with plenty of opportunities to climb and explore the tunnels in the area.

Sandstone Falls is one of the trails New River Gorge National Park is known for. The trail to the falls was quite crowded even on a Thursday morning. It is a wooden platform trail most of the way but has some areas to explore on a true trail. We enjoyed eating lunch while enjoying the beauty of Sandstone Falls.

The visitor center is small but well done with a lot of information about the park, the natural history and science of the river. Definitely worth a stop to get a better understanding of what you are exploring.

Overall, New River Gorge was not in our top National Parks, but we were glad to have experienced the park and see a bit more natural beauty in the world.

Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park is definitely one of my favorite National Parks we've experienced. From the drive in to the trails and overlooks, it is absolutely gorgeous!

We checked in to the Big Meadow Lodge and while I do not recommend staying at the Lodge, it was convenient. The rooms were extremely small for the four of us, barely room to open the door. The walls are also paper thin, we could hear our neighboring room talking like they were in our room. But if you are good with glamping in small quarters these may work perfect for you.

After checking in, we made our way to a hike close by the lodge, The Blackrock Trail. While it is an easy 1.9 mile hike, the view at the top was absolutely stunning. In fact, we went back at sunset and it may have been the most beautiful sunset I have seen.

The next morning we hiked Little Stony Man via the Appalachian Trail. This was a great trail with beautiful overlooks. We always try to hike a bit of the Appalachian Trail when possible, and this was a great one to do. The kids and I got to see markers for where hikers are allowed to camp while thru hiking. The views at the top of Little Stony Man and Stony Man were both gorgeous. The trail to Little Stony Man was quite busy but once you took the Appalachian Trail it was quiet and serene. I definitely recommend hiking this if possible.

If you are not into hiking but want to explore the park, we loved driving along Skyline Drive. It's stunning. Make sure to stop at the pull offs to get a better view of the surrounding area. The rolling, treed mountains are beautiful!

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New River Gorge and Shenandoah are two completely distinct National Parks, but both were beautiful in their own ways. We definitely recommend making time to visit them both. You don't need more than a day or two at New River Gorge but you could spend at least 3-4 days hiking in Shenandoah.