This weekend we took off towards the mountains of West Virginia to check out Spruce Knob and see some snow.
Spruce Knob is the highest point in the State of West Virginia and is located within the Monongahela National Forest. It’s an easy and scenic 3 hour drive from Northern Virginia and it’s friendly for any vehicle type as long as it hasn’t snowed recently.
The entire road to the summit is paved but it’s not plowed during the winter so the roads can be snow covered and/or icy depending on the recent weather.
We took the road up from Route 28 and weaved through the forest while stopping at a beautiful scenic overlook on the east side of the mountain.
As we climbed higher in elevation we started to see our first snow of the season, and we were able to take some amazing contrasting shots of the show covered mountain tops against the warmer valleys below.
At the top of Spruce Knob we found plenty of parking as we were the only one’s out in the freezing temperatures. There’s also an observation tower that requires a short hike, but the views of the valley make it worth the walk (Pack a hat!).
Our next stop was Spruce Knob Lake which is much more popular during warmer weather and also hosts a campground (it’s closed during the winter). The entire lake was frozen over with a spectacular sheet of ice, but I’d recommend that you don’t venture out from the banks.
As far as off road driving goes, we didn’t find much in the immediate area around Spruce Knob. The road between the lake and summit is a gravel fire road, but the rest was paved. There are numerous hiking trails though that crisscross the area, and the views from the summit made the trip well worth the drive.
Was there over the summer, in my VW. I must have missed the paved road, I was traveling from the southwest Cass, WV. I am planning on making a return trip to Spruce Knob at night for some spectacular star gazing.
The road is paved if you approach from the east side of the mountain. From the west side it’s a mixture of paved road and maintained/graded gravel road.
Nice – we’ll have to go check it out sometime for shizzle.
It’s pretty close to you guys, you won’t be disappointed if you make the drive.
We made it up there over the summer, cool place and I would like to get back and take a few sunrise photos from the tower this winter.
It was pretty windy though, we didn’t want to stay out there for long. I’m sure it’s a lot nicer when the weather is warmer.