As a reminder, there are 63 National Parks in the United States of America. 

These are the 63 natural wonders deemed so incredible that, we, as a society have agreed to protect these important lands for future generations. 

We haven’t visited The New River Gorge since the area became the youngest National Park in 2020. On our trip, we will be visiting seven national parks and countless other national monuments and nationally protected areas. The National Park Service remains one of Americas crowning achievements and one that other countries envy when they visit. These protected parks tend to spark the focus of our trips and I hope everyone gets to visit many National Parks in their lifetime. 

The New River Gorge area has endless boating, hiking, camping, and adventure but the real reason this area is protected is for the massive mile wide gorge formed by the New River which is still carving out a deeper gully bellow. We will cross it on the 3,030.5ft* engineering marvel that was constructed to span this natural wonder. This relatively recent geologic event also created the gnarly white water rapids we plan to take advantage of tomorrow. 

Today we hiked along the rim of the gorge and saw the “Endless Wall”. A series of cliffs, formed by the geologic events described above, that jet out from the trail and overlook the river. I’m so relieved to be on our first long hike, camping in a National Park. It now feels like more than a long weekend away and more like the bus is now home. 

*according to Fitz