Outdoor Adventures at the New River Gorge, WV

*Update 1/9/2021* The New River Gorge is now a National Park! It is the United States newest National Park.

Usually when I think of outdoor adventures, I think of hiking, kayaking, or chasing waterfalls.  I see a plethora of posts on my Instagram feed showing these activities and I love to do them all! However, there are so many adventures people can do in the great outdoors besides just these few activities.  My family is a group that is always pushing me to try new activities and do new adventures that challenge me to go a little outside of my comfort zone.  So, when my dad introduced a more adventurous trip idea to me, I couldn’t say no. 

White Water Rafting

The trip idea all started with wanting to raft some of the best white water on the East Coast.  That led us to the New River Gorge in West Virginia.  New River is great because it has rapids from class 1 up to class 5. My family of course wanted to go big and try a route with class 5 rapids; we weren’t disappointed!  With a guide that has been rafting the river for over 20 years, we knew we were in good hands as he oversaw us through each rapid.  Throughout our trip, he talked about the history of the river and the changes it and the surrounding area has faced over the years. 

My favorite part of the day had to be when we got the chance to surf a rapid.  Surfing a rapid is when you bring your raft headfirst onto the rapid and try to ride it.  The tricky part was trying to not get pulled into the whirlpool to the side of the rapid because that would mean trouble.  While I had gone rafting before, I had never fallen out of a raft and was nervous that it would happen today.  Sometimes things can go really wrong when you fall out of the raft! We successfully surfed the rapid twice, but on the third try we got pulled into the whirlpool.  Our whole raft flipped, and we were thrown into the water!  After feeling the shock of the water, I quickly got my bearings and swam to the surface. Once above the water, I scanned the area looking for my family and another raft to quickly swim to. I didn’t want to be dragged down the river into the next rapid. Once I was safely on another raft and saw that everyone was ok, I couldn’t help but start laughing.  Falling out of the raft was actually a lot of fun! Within a matter of minutes, our raft was upright again, and we were all back inside preparing for the next rapid.

Zip-lining

Gravity

Gravity zip lining is where they send you flying on hundreds to thousands of feet of zip lines hitting speeds close to 60 miles per hour, all while you are a few hundred feet above the ground! The thrill of zipping through the air and watching the scenery of the mountains around me was enough to keep a smile on my face all day.  It was also a great ab workout because there was a form we needed to keep; otherwise, we might slow down and get stuck in the middle of the line. No one wants to pull themselves by their arms across 1,000 + feet of line to make it to the next platform.

Treetop

Treetop zip lining made me feel like an Ewok from Star Wars, swinging from one platform up in the trees to the next! It was an awesome way to zip line at a slower pace and really get to experience what it is like to be in a canopy of trees.  Some routes we crossed wooden bridges high off the ground and purposefully made them sway to the point where you were horizontally looking down at the river below! We were of course tied into a line hanging above the bridge in case anyone did fall off.  I was thankful for that because during one sway my foot slipped and slid off the bridge making me lose my balance! I caught myself from going completely over the edge, but my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest!

Caving

We were squeezing ourselves through small holes, sliding down sheets of rock, crawling through areas that were far bigger horizontally than vertically, and sloshing our way through freezing cave rivers. It was amazing! I never knew I could fit into such tiny spaces, I felt like my cat trying to squeeze herself into tiny cardboard boxes.  Once we were deep into the cave, we turned off all of our lights and got to experience total darkness.  The kind of darkness that if you are left alone in for too long can mess with your mind.  The whole caving experience lasted about 4 hours and it is something I will never forget!  If you do ever go caving like this experience, make sure you wear the appropriate clothing.  I learned that yoga pants were not the best option as mine were completely unusable after this adventure.  Oops!

Rappelling

As a rock climber, although I climb indoors, I thought rappelling would be a breeze for me.  As I stood on the edge of the rock I was about to rappel down, fear slowly crept through my veins.  I had never experienced a fear of heights before, but the rock itself was hundreds of feet high and it was on the side of the mountain, so we were thousands of feet in the air already! I held my breath and just tried to focus on the task of getting down. I slowly lowered myself down the rock, and I have to admit I didn’t look at the scenery too much.  I was too focused on not letting go of the rope and steadying my breathing.  When I made it to the bottom, I let out a huge sigh of relief.  Now that I did it once, I wanted to do it again! My second time rappelling down the rock was different; the fear that had once gripped me before was just about gone and I dared myself to look at the amazing scenery around me.  The coolest part was that we were rappelling close to a bridge that ran over the river.  It was an amazing view to see it from that angle, hanging off a cliff.

Rock Climbing

After hearing that the New River has awesome outdoor climbs, I was rooting to go climbing on this trip.  However, I was outnumbered, and we only ended up going rappelling.  I still wanted to mention climbing in this post because of the fabulous reviews of the place I have heard from other climbers.  Our rappelling guide moved to the area from the Midwest because the climbing was so good! Therefore, if you do find yourself inspired to visit the New River Gorge, try not to miss out on the climbing.  You might even see me there because I know I need to go back!

While this post is not sponsored, I do want to mention that throughout the trip we stayed at Adventures on the Gorge.  They provided us with a cabin to sleep in and they were our guides for all of the adventures except the cave.  They took different measures to keep the staff and participants safe from Covid. While traveling during Covid is an activity in itself that can push people past their comfort zone, my family thought the company did a good job with their Covid safety procedures. Overall, the trip was a great way to travel and try more unusual outdoor activities, while spending time bonding with the family!