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
Hiring someone who knows which road is legal
The value of a local guide here is legal as much as practical. A Monongahela forest road is open only to highway-licensed vehicles, routes not shown on the Motor Vehicle Use Map are closed, the Cranberry corridor has gated segments, and the northern end of the Canaan Loop Road crosses private timber land that asks for permission first.
Season matters too. High roads open when snow-free rather than on a date, and the Highland Scenic Highway parkway is discouraged from November to April.
A guide earns the fee in the places where the map runs out of detail. They know which wash flooded last week, which gate is locked, where the fuel is, and how long the hard section really takes with a group.
A guided trip usually brings
01Route knowledge and current conditions
02Permits and access already arranged
03Recovery skill and equipment
04A pace that suits the group
05The history and natural history of the place
How to choose a guide
Ask the questions a land manager would.
01Ask whether they hold the permits and insurance required to operate commercially on the land they use.
02Ask about group size and the minimum vehicle requirements.
03Ask what is included: meals, camping gear, communications, a support vehicle.
04Ask about first-aid training and the plan for emergencies.
What to tell a guide
Honesty about experience makes for a better trip.
01Your vehicle and what has been done to it
02Your experience off pavement
03Who is coming, including children and dogs
04Your dates, and what you most want to see
Questions people ask
Do I need a guide?
Not for most travel. A guide earns the fee on routes that are remote, technical or hard to get permits for, and on first trips where you would rather learn than guess.
Can I join a guided trip in my own vehicle?
That is how most overland guiding works. The guide leads in their vehicle, you drive yours, and the trip sets minimum requirements for the vehicles that come.
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.
