Established campgrounds that welcome vehicle-based travelers, from public campgrounds on the way to somewhere to private camps worth a stay of their own.
Rich Mountain Road, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
We’re working on adding the latest campgrounds in West Virginia here.
In the meantime, BLM campgrounds are already on the public land map, with the fees and stay limits the agency publishes and a link to each one.
Across 10 counties. The forest home page rounds the same land to nearly a million, and the CRS puts all Forest Service land in the state at 1,047,859 acres
The largest Forest Service wilderness in the eastern United States. Eight wilderness areas on the Monongahela cover 115,000 acres, all of them closed to vehicles
34 Forest Service, 11 Corps of Engineers and two Park Service, of which 33 take bookings. New River Gorge counts eight free primitive campgrounds of its own
NOAA calls it some of the highest east of the Mississippi. The Charleston weather office gives a range of 30 to 150 inches for the high country
Camping on public land in West Virginia
Our build of the federal database finds 47 campgrounds a vehicle can reach, 34 Forest Service, 11 Corps of Engineers and two Park Service. Dispersed camping on the Monongahela is allowed to 14 cumulative days at one site in a 28-day period, after which you may not set up again within five road miles for three weeks. Single sites take eight people, two vehicles and one wheeled unit.
New River Gorge runs eight primitive campgrounds, all free, none reservable, first come with a 14-day limit in 28. State parks cap a stay at 14 nights from May 1 to Labor Day.
Developed campgrounds have numbered sites, toilets, often water, usually a fee and sometimes reservations. They are the easy night on the way to somewhere.
Dispersed camping means no facilities and no fee. It is allowed on much Bureau of Land Management and National Forest land, within local rules on where you can pull off, how long you can stay and whether you can have a fire.
Private campgrounds and ranch stays add showers, laundry and hookups: the reset day in the middle of a long trip.
How to find a good one
The managing agency's own page is the only source for current status.
01Check the agency page for closures, fire restrictions and water before you drive in.
02Check the stay limit. Many public lands use fourteen days within a set period, but it varies by office.
03Check vehicle length limits and the condition of the access road.
04Arrive before dark, and have a second option.
Camp so it stays open
Most closures of dispersed areas follow the same pattern of trash, new fire rings and driving off the track.
01Use sites that already exist rather than making new ones.
02Pack out everything, including human waste where it is required.
03Have fires only where and when they are allowed, and drown them.
04Leave gates as you found them.
Questions people ask
Is dispersed camping legal?
On much BLM and National Forest land, yes, within local rules on where you can pull off, how long you can stay and whether fires are allowed. Rules are set by the local office and change with conditions, so check before you go. The public land map shows who manages the ground.
How long can I stay?
Many public lands use a 14-day limit within a set period, but it varies by office and by area. The campground details on the public land map show the stay limit the BLM publishes for each site.
Do I need a reservation?
For popular developed campgrounds in season, often. Many public campgrounds are first come, first served. Recreation.gov handles reservations for most federal campgrounds that take them.
How high is West Virginia?
From Harpers Ferry at 490 feet to Spruce Knob at 4,863.
Altitude decides what your engine, your brakes and your lungs have to work with, and how late in the year the passes open.
02,0004,0006,000
Feet above sea level
Towns
DavisOn WV 32 in Tucker County. Forest Road 13, the Canaan Loop Road, leaves WV 32 a few miles south and works around Canaan Mountain.3,097 ft
BeckleyWhere I-64, I-77 and US 19 meet. The Coal Heritage Trail runs south from here through the coalfields.2,420 ft
RichwoodWestern end of the Highland Scenic Highway at 2,325 feet, and the road town for the Cranberry River and the Cranberry Wilderness.2,203 ft
MarlintonOn US 219 in Pocahontas County, near the eastern end of the Highland Scenic Highway and the Gaudineer road off US 250.2,125 ft
LewisburgOn I-64 and US 219 in the Greenbrier Valley, at the southern end of the Monongahela and the eastern end of the Midland Trail.2,077 ft
ElkinsWhere US 219, US 33 and US 250 meet on the western side of the Monongahela National Forest. Bickle Knob and the Otter Creek Wilderness sit east of town.1,928 ft
SummersvilleOn US 19 beside the Corps of Engineers lake, between the Gauley River canyon and the Cranberry country.1,878 ft
FayettevilleOn US 19 at the New River Gorge Bridge. Fayette Station Road drops into the gorge and climbs the far side from here.1,815 ft
ParsonsOn US 219 at the Cheat River, the northern approach to the Otter Creek Wilderness and to Dolly Sods by way of Laneville.1,647 ft
Seneca RocksAt the junction of US 33 and WV 28/55 under the rocks themselves, inside the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area.1,567 ft
PetersburgOn WV 28/55 in Grant County. Smoke Hole Road and the eastern approach to Dolly Sods by Jordan Run both leave from here.934 ft
MorgantownOn I-79 and I-68 in the north. Coopers Rock State Forest is less than 15 miles east, with more than 50 miles of trail.888 ft
GilbertMingo County town among the southern Hatfield-McCoy systems, where a trail permit matters more than a map of pavement.837 ft
LoganCounty seat in the southern coalfields, in the part of the state the Hatfield-McCoy trail systems were built across.675 ft
CharlestonState capital where I-64, I-77 and I-79 meet, at the western end of the Midland Trail. Kanawha State Forest is seven miles out.596 ft
Harpers FerryEastern Panhandle, where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac near the 240-foot state low point, on the Washington Heritage Trail.490 ft
Passes, high roads and summits
Spruce KnobThe highest point in West Virginia, with a gravel forest road to a parking area below a stone and steel observation tower4,863 ft
Forest Roads 112 and 104 to Spruce KnobForest Road 112 to the Forest Road 104 junction, then up to the summit parking area4,863 ft
Mount Porte CrayonA Randolph County summit above the Roaring Plains country. No agency publishes an elevation for it, so this is our own reading of the 3DEP surface at the USGS point4,770 ft
Gaudineer KnobThe high ground of Shavers Mountain above the Gaudineer Scenic Area, reached by Forest Road 27. Our own 3DEP reading, because the forest page states no elevation4,447 ft
Forest Road 27 to the Gaudineer Scenic AreaDurbin west on US 250 for four miles, then north on Forest Service Road 274,447 ft
Bickle KnobThe knob east of Elkins on the forest road network above the Cheat River. Our own 3DEP reading4,002 ft
Pass, road and summit elevations are the figures published by the agency that manages them. Town elevations are the town’s or county’s own
figure where it publishes an exact one; the rest are from the U.S. Geological Survey (3D Elevation Program at the place’s official coordinates),
retrieved September 18, 2026. Every source is listed at the foot of the page.
