One forest holds almost all the federal ground
Of 1,140,201 federal acres the Forest Service has 1,047,859, the Park Service 67,217, the Fish and Wildlife Service 22,265 and the Department of Defense 2,860. The BLM has none, which is why nothing on this page carries a BLM figure and why the national BLM route layer returns nothing for West Virginia. In a western state that same page would start with a BLM field office. Here it starts with a single national forest.
The Monongahela spans nearly a million acres across 10 counties in eastern West Virginia, with elevations from 1,000 feet up to Spruce Knob at 4,863. Its own About the Area page states the acreage more precisely, at more than 919,000 acres, and explains the climate split that shapes every trip: the western side of the forest takes about 60 inches of precipitation a year while the rain shadow side to the east takes half of that. At least 75 tree species grow on it, and the rivers that drain it, the Cheat, the Gauley, the Greenbrier and the Potomac, give their names to ranger districts.
The difference between the forest figure and the Forest Service total for the state is the West Virginia end of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, which are chiefly a Virginia forest and publish no West Virginia acreage of their own. Nobody publishes a West Virginia road mileage for either forest, so this page states none. What each forest does publish is a Motor Vehicle Use Map, and that is the document that decides where you may legally drive.
Source 6
Wilderness closes a large share of this forest
The Monongahela counts eight wilderness areas among its recreation offerings and puts 115,000 acres inside the National Wilderness Preservation System. The forest states the rule without hedging: motorized and mechanical equipment is not permitted, including but not limited to chainsaws, mountain bikes and deer carts. That is a large proportion of a forest of this size, and it means the interesting country is often reached by a road that stops at a boundary rather than crossing it.
The naming is worth understanding before you read a map. The wilderness page lists seven names, Big Draft, Cranberry, Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork North and South as one entry, Otter Creek, Roaring Plains West and Spice Run, while the recreation page counts eight areas, because Laurel Fork is two. Both statements are the forest’s own.
Source 8
The wildernesses, one at a time
Otter Creek is 20,698 acres running from 1,800 feet at the mouth of Otter Creek to 3,900 feet on McGowan Mountain, with 45 miles of trail on old railroad grades, logging roads and farm roads. The forest is blunt about what that means for a driver: motor vehicles are restricted to roads and parking areas. It adds that the trails are neither signed nor blazed, that rock cairns are sometimes provided, and that few bridges exist at creek crossings.
The Cranberry Wilderness is 47,815 acres in Pocahontas and Webster counties between 2,400 and more than 4,600 feet, and the Forest Service calls it the largest Forest Service wilderness in the eastern United States. Dolly Sods is 17,371 acres across Grant, Randolph and Tucker counties, 2,500 to over 4,700 feet, holding bog and heath more usual in southern Canada and 47 miles of trail. Between them they take in most of the ground people picture when they picture the West Virginia highlands.
Plan a trip around the edges of these areas rather than through them. The roads that matter, Forest Road 19 and Forest Road 75 at Dolly Sods, Forest Road 76 along the Cranberry, are corridors with wilderness on one side, and every one of them has its own closure order attached.
Source 17
Three Park Service units, all of them rivers
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve protects 53 miles of the New River and over 70,000 acres of the gorge the river cut, in a state where nothing else the Park Service runs is anywhere near that size. Gauley River National Recreation Area and Bluestone National Scenic River are the other two, both river corridors rather than road networks.
The split between park and preserve inside New River Gorge is worth reading before an autumn trip, because the practical difference is hunting. The Park Service allows hunting anywhere designated national preserve and prohibits it at Grandview, Camp Brookside, Sandstone Falls and the Lower Gorge, the four areas designated national park, along with anywhere within 500 feet of a campground, day use area or visitor centre. Know which side of that line your site is on.
Source 29
State parks and forests, and a count that changes by page
The Division of Natural Resources describes a system of 36 state parks, nine state forests and three rail trails. It is the widest network of marked, serviced camping in the state. Two of the forests sit inside a short drive of a city, which makes them the practical shakedown ground for a new build.
Count the state forests and the answer moves. The DNR says nine. The Division of Forestry’s own list names seven. This page uses the DNR figure and records the difference rather than choosing quietly.
Source 36
Ninety-six wildlife management areas, and 1.4 million acres
This is the piece of West Virginia that visitors underestimate. The Wildlife Resources Section manages 1.4 million acres across 96 wildlife management areas, which it states is eight percent of the state’s total land area. That is more ground than the Monongahela National Forest holds, and it reaches far beyond the ten counties the forest covers.
Access is not the same as a national forest, though. Camping is permitted in designated areas only and the campsite fee is paid before you occupy the site. Read the WMA rules before you plan a night there, because they are stricter than forest rules about where a vehicle may be.
Source 38
What may legally drive where
Forest order 09-21-25-02, effective October 18, 2020, prohibits all-terrain vehicles, utility-terrain vehicles, go-carts, golf carts, dirt bikes and street-legal special purpose vehicles, registered or not, on every National Forest System road across the entirety of the Monongahela. The only vehicles permitted are those licensed or certified under West Virginia law for general operation on all public roads and highways. A plated truck or van qualifies. A plated side-by-side does not.
The companion order closes the rest of the question. Motor vehicles may not be used off a forest road, may not be used on a forest trail, and may not pass a road closed by sign, gate, barricade or earthen barricade. Snowmobiles have the single exception, shoulder to shoulder on the Highland Scenic Highway where it is Forest Road 150.
Then the map decides the detail. The Forest Service says a motor vehicle use map shows the roads and trails open to motorized travel by class of vehicle and, in some cases, by season of use, and that routes or areas not shown on one are closed to public motor vehicle travel. Carry the district map for the ground you are crossing, and treat it as the legal record rather than as a suggestion.
State ground answers differently again. In a state park or forest, driving anywhere other than areas specifically intended for vehicular traffic is prohibited. On a wildlife management area, ATVs, motorbikes and snowmobiles are prohibited except where posted signs permit them on designated roads and trails, and the speed limit is 30 miles an hour.
Source 27
Off-highway country has its own address
The southern coalfields are where the machines the Monongahela excludes actually belong. The Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, created under West Virginia Code chapter 20, article 14, runs more than 1,000 miles of trail across 13 systems: Bearwallow, Big Coal River, Braveheart, Buffalo Mountain, Cabwaylingo, Devil Anse, Indian Ridge, Ivy Branch, Pinnacle Creek, Pocahontas, Rockhouse, Tornado and Warrior.
For a full-size vehicle the list is short, and the authority is specific about it. Off-road vehicles are only permitted on Bearwallow, Cabwaylingo and Ivy Branch, though the authority’s own page for the Big Coal River system describes that system as open to ORVs and Jeeps as well. Check the system you want before you buy a permit, because the permit is not refundable time.
This is a different kind of trip from a highland forest road. Trailheads sit in the coalfield towns, the trails are graded by difficulty and signed accordingly, and the rules are enforced by an authority with statutory power rather than by a ranger district.
Source 49
The calendar is written in snow and rain
Nothing here closes for altitude the way a western pass does, and almost everything closes for snow. The Forest Service marks its high country open when roads are snow-free and shut when snow covered, which is how Spruce Knob, the Williams River campsites and the Cranberry dispersed sites are described rather than by a date.
The numbers are large for an eastern state. The Charleston weather office reports yearly snow across its area running from less than an inch to over a hundred inches, with the mountains and high elevations generally taking between thirty and a hundred and fifty, across more than 2,800 feet of elevation change from the western lowlands to the eastern ridges. Snowshoe, at 4,847 feet the highest cooperative station in that area, recorded 103 inches in a single month in January 2010.
Rain is the other half of it, and it never really stops. Central West Virginia takes 50 or more inches of precipitation a year and the Ohio River side around 40, while a rain shadow west of the Eastern Panhandle drops the annual average to about 35 inches. On the Canaan Mountain plateau the forest warns that freezing temperatures and snow can occur any time of year, mainly between October and April.
So plan around a season and check the gate rather than the forecast. Campground toilets on the Cranberry and the Williams close on December 1 while the sites stay open as long as the road is clear, and the Highland Scenic Highway parkway is not maintained in winter at all.
Source 52
Where a vehicle may stop for the night
Our build of the Recreation.gov database finds 47 federal campgrounds in West Virginia a vehicle can reach: 34 Forest Service, 11 Corps of Engineers and two National Park Service, of which 33 can be booked ahead. The Monongahela’s own list runs to more than twenty sites, from Bear Heaven and Big Bend to Bishop Knob, Blue Bend, Cranberry, Day Run and Gatewood, plus fourteen primitive numbered campsites spread along a five-mile section of the lower Cranberry River.
Dispersed camping on the forest is allowed and metered. The general use order caps a stay outside developed campgrounds at 14 cumulative days at one site in a 28-day period, and then bars moving the camp within five road miles of the site just left without waiting three weeks. Single sites are held to eight people, two vehicles and one wheeled camping unit.
Two places replace that with something stricter, and both are places people want to be. Around Dolly Sods, camping and fire are prohibited within 300 feet of Forest Road 19 or Forest Road 75. At Gandy Creek, camping is limited to sites marked by a campsite sign. Add the food storage order on two ranger districts and a bear-resistant container stops being optional gear.
Source 28
Six signed byways, and one of them is not paved country at all
The Federal Highway Administration lists six byways in West Virginia. Five are National Scenic Byways: the Coal Heritage Trail, the Highland Scenic Highway, the Midland Trail, the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and the Washington Heritage Trail. The sixth is the Historic National Road, an All-American Road that West Virginia shares with Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
They are the practical skeleton of a trip here, because between them they reach every corner of the state and they carry the numbers a paper map agrees with. One of them behaves differently from the rest. The Highland Scenic Highway is the byway that climbs above 4,500 feet, and the Forest Service does not maintain its parkway section through winter, so plan the forest roads off whichever byway suits the season you are travelling in.
Source 53
Passes and routes
-
Highland Scenic HighwayPaved
43 miles
Richwood to US 219 north of Marlinton, on State Routes 39 and 150
A paved two-lane National Scenic Byway that rises from 2,325 feet near Richwood to more than 4,500 feet, with four overlooks at Williams River, Big Spruce, Little Laurel and Red Lick. Vault toilets at the overlooks, no potable water anywhere along it. Speed limits are 55 on the Route 39/55 section and 45 on the parkway. The Cranberry Wilderness page adds that Route 150 is not snowplowed in winter and is closed to vehicular traffic when it is under snow, and the Monongahela allows snowmobiles shoulder to shoulder here, the only exception written into its motor vehicle order. 10
- Vehicle
- Any car. Commercial trucks are not allowed on the parkway section
- Season
- The parkway section is not maintained in winter and closes when snow covered. The forest highly discourages travel on Route 150 between November and April
-
Forest Roads 112 and 104 to Spruce Knob
4,863 ft About 9 miles, 7.4 on FR 112 and 1.6 on FR 104
Forest Road 112 to the Forest Road 104 junction, then up to the summit parking area
The drive to the highest point in West Virginia at 4,863 feet. A stone and steel observation tower sits on the knob and the half-mile Whispering Spruce Trail circles it, past one-sided red spruce deformed by constant exposure to strong westerly winds. Vault toilets, picnic tables, grills and parking at the top. No potable water at the site, so carry your own up. 11
- Vehicle
- Street-legal vehicles only, as on every Monongahela forest road
- Season
- Opens when roads are snow-free, and the site is open except when the roads are closed by snow. Toilets closed in winter
-
Through the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area
US 33 and WV 28/55 between Seneca Rocks, Riverton and the Spruce Knob road
Congress created this 100,000-acre national recreation area in 1965, and it is the part of the Monongahela that reads most like a western trip: the highest peak in the state, some of the best rock climbing on the east coast, and a formation rising nearly 900 feet above the North Fork River. Nearly 60 miles of trail run through red spruce, open meadow and fast mountain stream. Visitor facilities are the Seneca Rocks Discovery Center, the Seneca Shadows and Big Bend campgrounds and the Spruce Knob tower. Parts of it are leased for natural gas and parts to farmers raising corn or hay, so expect working land rather than a park. 12
- Vehicle
- Paved highway on the through route, gravel forest road on every branch off it
-
Canaan Loop Road, Forest Road 13
About 18 miles
WV 32 about 3.3 miles south of the Blackwater River bridge in Davis, around Canaan Mountain to Blackwater Falls State Park
A gravel loop around the perimeter of the Canaan Mountain Backcountry, roughly 13,532 acres on top of the plateau between Canaan Valley State Park and Blackwater Falls State Park. The Forest Service says driving is permitted but to exercise caution, especially in a low-clearance vehicle, and gives one warning worth acting on before you set out: the northern portions of this road are on private land, and visitors should call Allegheny Wood Products for permission before travelling that end. 18
- Vehicle
- Gravel. Driving is permitted, and the Forest Service tells low-clearance drivers to take particular care
- Season
- The forest warns that freezing temperatures and snow can occur at any time of year on the plateau, mainly between October and April
-
Canaan Valley on WV 32Paved
Davis south on WV 32 through Canaan Valley, past Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge
The paved road down a high Allegheny valley, and the route every trip in Tucker County hangs off. Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge was established on August 11, 1994 with the purchase of 86 acres and now covers 18,986, holding the largest wetland complex in West Virginia and in the central and southern Appalachians at over 8,400 acres. The refuge describes a high elevation, moist valley whose elevation and position in the Allegheny Mountains combine to create a cool, moist climate, which is the plainest explanation anywhere of why the roads on either side of it open late. 34
- Vehicle
- Any car. The forest roads that matter leave it on both sides
-
Forest Road 19 to Dolly Sods
Jordan Run Road off WV 28/55 near Petersburg, and Laneville off WV 32 from Canaan Valley, to the Dolly Sods Scenic Area and Forest Road 75
The way into the most distinctive ground in the state, a 17,371-acre wilderness in Grant, Randolph and Tucker counties running from 2,500 to over 4,700 feet, with bog and heath more usual in southern Canada and 47 miles of trail on old railroad grades and logging roads. From Petersburg it is WV 28/55 to Jordan Run Road, one mile to FR 19, then six miles of FR 19. From Canaan Valley it is WV 32 to the Laneville Road, about six miles to the Red Creek bridge where pavement turns to gravel. A closure order governs the whole corridor, so read the camping rule before you pick a pull-off. 13
- Vehicle
- The pavement ends at the Red Creek bridge and the rest is gravel. Street-legal vehicles only
-
Smoke Hole Road
13 miles of Route 28/11, then County Route 2
WV 28/55 eight miles south of Petersburg into the Smoke Hole canyon of the South Branch of the Potomac
The South Branch has cut a canyon here half a mile deep with nearly vertical walls, running over 20 miles. The directions are exact and worth following: 28/55 from Petersburg for eight miles, left onto Smoke Hole Road, Route 28/11, and 13 miles to County Route 2. Big Bend Campground sits inside the canyon. The forest publishes no vehicle class for the road and makes one request instead, to take your time. 19
- Vehicle
- The Forest Service calls the roads into the area narrow and winding
-
Williams River Road, Forest Road 86
The Highland Scenic Highway down the Williams River toward Cowen, on the Gauley Ranger District
The Williams begins on Black Mountain in Pocahontas County and flows west 33 miles to its confluence with the Gauley near Cowen, and the forest road follows it closely all the way down. The developed dispersed campsites strung along it are why most drivers come, and the forest describes them by condition rather than by date. This is inside the food storage order area, so settle the bear-resistant container or the hang before you arrive. 20
- Vehicle
- Street-legal vehicles only, as on every Monongahela forest road
- Season
- Campsites open when the road is snow-free, and the toilets close on December 1
-
Cranberry River road, Forest Road 76
About 16 miles, South Fork parking area to Cranberry Campground
The lower Cranberry River corridor beside the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area
A 14,000-acre river corridor with a road down the middle of it and the 47,815-acre Cranberry Wilderness on the far bank. Seven Adirondack-style shelters stand along the gated segments of Forest Roads 76 and 102, free of charge and first come, first served, each with a fire ring and grill, a picnic table and a vault toilet nearby. Fourteen primitive numbered campsites are spread along a five-mile stretch of the lower river. The gates are the point here: beyond them the corridor is walking, riding and cycling ground. 16
- Vehicle
- Gated segments beyond the developed end. Read the Motor Vehicle Use Map before planning a through drive
-
Forest Road 27 to the Gaudineer Scenic Area
4,447 ft 1.5 miles from US 250
Durbin west on US 250 for four miles, then north on Forest Service Road 27
A short climb onto Shavers Mountain to a 140-acre scenic area, about 50 acres of which the Forest Service considers part of the virgin red spruce that once covered large portions of the West Virginia highlands. The forest page gives the acreage and the directions and publishes no elevation, so the figure on the chart is our own reading of the 3DEP surface at the USGS point for Gaudineer Knob, 4,447 feet. 21
- Vehicle
- Street-legal vehicles only, as on every Monongahela forest road
-
Fayette Station Road
8 miles
Canyon Rim down to the New River, under the bridge, and back up the far side
The Park Service describes an eight-mile, one-way road, the way everyone crossed the gorge before the New River Gorge Bridge opened in 1977. Download the audio tour before you drop in, because cell reception down there is patchy and the tour is the whole point of driving it slowly. Early travellers came down a macadam roadway of crushed and compacted stone on roughly this line. 31
- Vehicle
- One way. Vehicles over 12 feet tall cannot finish it because of a low clearance railroad bridge
-
Thurmond, Nuttallburg and Sandstone Falls
Three separate descents off the rim into New River Gorge
The park is specific about which of its roads take a big vehicle and which do not. No RV of any size should drive across the Thurmond bridge, and medium and large RVs are not recommended on the road to Thurmond at all. The Nuttallburg road on Keeney’s Creek is not recommended for any RV. Only small RVs are recommended at Sandstone Falls. Medium and large RVs are discouraged from Fayette Station Road for its sharp curves on top of the 12-foot height limit. Take these as the working size chart for the whole gorge. 32
- Vehicle
- Size limited. The park sets small at under 25 feet, medium at under 31.5 and large above that
-
Ivy Branch and Cabwaylingo, Hatfield-McCoy Trails
Ivy Branch about twenty minutes from Charleston; Cabwaylingo on state forest land in the southwest
These are the two systems the authority describes for full-size vehicles by name. Ivy Branch is written up for Jeeps and land cruisers alongside ATVs, UTVs and dirt bikes, and Cabwaylingo runs nearly 100 miles across 8,300 acres of state forest. Elsewhere in the system the vehicle mix changes: Rockhouse is over 100 miles and the largest single system, Big Coal River is roughly 50 miles, Tornado is about 35 miles of single track for dirt bikes and e-bikes only, and the Pinnacle Creek, Warrior, Indian Ridge and Pocahontas group connects into a network of more than 400 miles. 48
- Vehicle
- Full-size off-road vehicles, ATVs, UTVs and dirt bikes. A user permit for every driver and passenger
-
Coopers Rock State Forest
I-68 east of Morgantown, less than 15 miles from town
State forest ground within sight of an interstate, with canyon overlooks, historic sites, sandstone cliffs for climbing and bouldering, cross-country ski terrain and more than 50 miles of trail. It makes a sensible first night on a highlands trip out of Morgantown and a sensible shakedown for a vehicle you have just finished building. 58
- Vehicle
- Road access from I-68 to the canyon overlooks
- Season
- Camping April to November, weather permitting
-
Seven miles from Charleston
Nine thousand three hundred acres of state forest almost inside the capital, with more than 60 miles of hiking and biking trail that the forest says suit every season. It puts a marked campsite seven miles from the junction of I-64, I-77 and I-79, which makes it a natural first or last night on a West Virginia loop. 59
- Vehicle
- Road access from Charleston, with the trail network leaving from it
- Season
- Camping April to December, weather permitting
-
Coal Heritage TrailPaved
97.56 miles
The southern coalfields through Fayette, Raleigh, Wyoming, McDowell and Mercer counties
A National Scenic Byway winding through mountains and valleys past the industrial heritage of the coalfields, with coal company towns, tipples, railroad structures and reclaimed mining land along the corridor. It is the paved spine of the same part of the state the Hatfield-McCoy systems run through, which makes it the practical way to move a trailer between trailheads. 54
-
Midland TrailPaved
116.8 miles
Charleston east on US 60 through the New River Gorge country to Lewisburg
A National Scenic Byway that begins at the State Capitol and runs east through Malden, boyhood home of Booker T. Washington, then through whitewater country and the scenery of New River Gorge and Hawks Nest State Park, finishing near colonial Lewisburg. It is the low road linking the capital to the gorge and to I-64, and it stays open in weather that shuts the Highland Scenic Highway two counties north. 55
-
Staunton-Parkersburg TurnpikePaved
180 miles
The Ohio at Parkersburg east across the mountains toward Staunton, Virginia
The longest of West Virginia’s National Scenic Byways, a road that was crucial in the first campaign of the Civil War and still threads Civil War sites and small historic towns past vast forests and a mountain railroad. It crosses the high middle of the state, so it is the paved route that ties the Ohio Valley to the Monongahela highlands and the Greenbrier valley. 56
-
Washington Heritage TrailPaved
136 miles
The Eastern Panhandle loop through Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties
A National Scenic Byway following George Washington’s routes through the Eastern Panhandle, past mountains and valleys, rivers and springs and five eighteenth century towns. This is the mildest corner of the state, sitting in the rain shadow where the annual average precipitation drops to about 35 inches, and it holds the 240-foot state low point at Harpers Ferry. 57
Rules worth knowing
- On the Monongahela, only a plated highway vehicle may use a forest road
- Forest order 09-21-25-02, effective October 18, 2020, prohibits registered, licensed, unlicensed and unregistered all-terrain vehicles, utility-terrain vehicles, go-carts, golf carts, dirt bikes and street-legal special purpose vehicles on all National Forest System roads across the entirety of the Monongahela National Forest. The only vehicles permitted are those licensed or certified under West Virginia law for general operation on all public roads and highways. A West Virginia SPV plate on a side-by-side does not buy you in. Snowmobiles have one exception, shoulder to shoulder on the Highland Scenic Highway where it is Forest Road 150. 23
- Off the road and past a gate are both prohibited
- The forest’s motor vehicle order prohibits possessing or using any motorized vehicle off a National Forest System road, on a National Forest System trail, or on a road closed by sign, gate, barricade or earthen barricade. It also prohibits operating a vehicle on a forest road in violation of any West Virginia traffic or vehicle law, parking against posted instructions, and commercial hauling without a permit or written authorization. Careless or reckless operation, and operating at a speed likely to endanger a person or property, are named separately. 22
- Fourteen days, then five road miles, then three weeks
- The Monongahela’s general use order prohibits camping outside developed campgrounds at any one site for more than 14 cumulative days within a 28-day period, and then prohibits relocating the camp within five road miles of the site just occupied without a waiting period of three weeks. Developed campgrounds carry the same 14 days in 28. Single sites are held to eight people, two vehicles and one wheeled camping unit; double sites to 16 people, four vehicles and two units. Unattended camping equipment may not be left for more than 24 hours without permission. 24
- Dolly Sods has a 300-foot rule
- A closure order prohibits camping within 300 feet of Forest Road 19 or Forest Road 75, and prohibits building, maintaining, attending or using a fire within the same 300 feet. Red Creek Campground is excepted from both, and a portable heater or cooking stove running on alcohol, gas or gasoline is allowed. The same order bars saddle, pack and draft animals from the Blue Bend Trail. This is the single rule most likely to move your planned camp on the best-known ground in the state, so read it before you drive up. 14
- Gandy Creek is designated sites only
- At the Gandy Creek dispersed area, camping is prohibited except at campsites designated by a campsite sign, and no more than two vehicles other than motorcycles and bicycles may be possessed, parked or left per campsite, with the Johnny Meadows group site excepted. Hitching, tethering or hobbling a horse or other saddle or pack animal between Gandy Creek Road and Gandy Creek is also prohibited, again except at the Johnny Meadows group site. The order has been in force since December 17, 2008 with no end date. 26
- Bear country on two ranger districts
- A food storage order covers the Marlinton-White Sulphur and Gauley ranger districts across Greenbrier, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Randolph and Webster counties. Food, refuse, lawfully taken fish and wildlife, coolers, cook stoves, pots, pans and utensils, and attractants such as toothpaste and soap, must be stored in a bear-resistant container, suspended at least 10 feet clear of the ground at all points and at least four feet horizontally from the supporting tree, or kept in a closed motor vehicle with a solid top, unless they are actively being eaten, prepared or carried. Refuse goes in a Forest Service receptacle; burning or burying it is prohibited. 25
- Wilderness is where the forest road ends
- The Monongahela holds 115,000 acres of wilderness designated under the National Wilderness Preservation System, and the rule on all of it is the same: no motorized or mechanical equipment, including but not limited to chainsaws, mountain bikes and deer carts. That covers Big Draft, Cranberry, Dolly Sods, Laurel Fork North and South, Otter Creek, Roaring Plains West and Spice Run. Several of the best drives in this guide run along a wilderness boundary rather than into one, which is exactly why the boundary is worth knowing before you turn off. 9
- West Virginia bans daytime outdoor burning for half the year
- The Division of Forestry sets two fire seasons, March 1 to May 31 and October 1 to December 31. During them, outdoor burning is prohibited from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., which means a debris fire may only run overnight and must be completely extinguished by 7 a.m. A safety strip cleared of burnable material and at least 10 feet wide must fully encircle the pile. Fines for a forest fire caused by negligence run from $100 to $1,000 with a $200 civil penalty on top, and the state may recover its suppression costs. This is a statewide law, not a restriction posted at a trailhead. 40
- An ATV needs a title here, not a plate
- West Virginia Code 17A-3-2 exempts all-terrain vehicles, utility terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and motorboats from the requirements of annual registration, license plates and fees, unless otherwise specified by law, while still subjecting them to the certificate of title provisions regardless of highway use. A plated truck or van is none of those categories, so nothing extra is needed to drive one on a legal road here. That is a simpler position than several western states take, and it is the reason this guide has no state OHV sticker to buy. 43
- Making a side-by-side road legal
- The Division of Motor Vehicles registers all-terrain vehicles, utility terrain vehicles, minitrucks, pneumatic-tired military vehicles and full-size special purpose-built vehicles as street-legal special purpose vehicles. The vehicle needs headlamps, tail lamps, brake lamps, reflectors, turn signals, a braking system, a horn, a muffler, rearview mirrors, a windshield or eye protection, a speedometer and tires with at least 2/32 inch of tread depth. The owner needs insurance, an inspection and the SPV certification form. The plate is $16 a year, $116 for a hybrid and $216 for an electric or natural gas vehicle. None of that opens a Monongahela forest road. 45
- Where an unplated machine may touch a road
- West Virginia Code 17F-1-1 keeps all-terrain vehicles off interstate highways and off roads with more than one lane in each direction, except to cross at approximately 90 degrees after a complete stop, yielding to traffic and with lights on if fitted. On a road shoulder an ATV may travel only at 25 miles an hour or less, and for no more than ten miles between a residence and an off-road area, including stops for necessities. Riders under 18 must wear a helmet meeting ANSI Z90.1, DOT FMVSS 218 or Snell standards, and a spark arrester and a working muffler are required. 44
- The Hatfield-McCoy permit is statute, not policy
- West Virginia Code 20-14-8 makes it an offence to enter or remain upon the Hatfield-McCoy Recreation Area without a valid, nontransferable user permit issued by the authority and properly displayed. The only exception written into the section covers properly identified landowners or leaseholders, and their officers, employees and agents, while on land they own or lease for purposes related to that ownership and not for recreation. Every driver and every passenger needs one. 46
- Full-size vehicles are limited to three of the thirteen systems
- The authority states that off-road vehicles are only permitted on the Bearwallow, Cabwaylingo and Ivy Branch trail systems, and that utility-terrain vehicles are permitted on easiest, more difficult and select most difficult trails signed accordingly. A user permit is required for all drivers and passengers, everyone wears a DOT or Snell approved helmet and eye protection, operators and passengers must meet the manufacturer’s minimum age and size requirements, and riders stay on marked trails and obey signs and barriers. The authority’s own Big Coal River page also lists ORVs and Jeeps, so confirm the system before you go. 47
- What a Hatfield-McCoy permit costs
- For 2026 the non-resident trail permit is $65, raised from $50, and the West Virginia resident permit stays at $26.50. The new prices applied from November 17, 2025, when 2026 permits went on sale. Anyone currently serving or previously serving in the United States military may buy a West Virginia resident permit regardless of where they live. Every visitor to the system, passengers included, buys an individual user permit, so price a trip by the number of seats in the vehicle rather than by the vehicle. 50
- Chains yes, studs by date, and no traction law at all
- West Virginia publishes no traction law, so there is no tire standard to meet at a checkpoint. Code 17C-15-37 permits tire chains of reasonable proportions whenever they are required for safety because of snow, ice or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid, and permits studded tires from November 1 of each year until April 15 of the following year, at a recommended air pressure no greater than 40 pounds per square inch outside school buses. Metal tires in contact with the roadway are prohibited outright. Judgement, not a sign, is what keeps you moving here in February. 42
- New River Gorge camps free, and limits by height
- All eight primitive campgrounds in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve are free, take no reservations and run first come, first served, with a limit of no more than 14 days within a 28-day period in any park campground or camping area. Camp only in designated campsites; camping in a day use, river access, trailhead or walk-in campsite parking lot is prohibited. Backcountry camping is allowed in specific areas, above the high water line of any river and away from developed facilities and trails. 30
- Know which side of the park and preserve line you are on
- Hunting is permitted in any area designated national preserve, which is most of New River Gorge, and prohibited in the four areas designated national park: Grandview, Camp Brookside, Sandstone Falls and the Lower Gorge. It is also prohibited within 500 feet of heavy visitor use areas, including established campgrounds, day use areas and visitor centres. If you are camping here in autumn, check the hunting area maps before you pick a site rather than after you hear the first shot. 33
- State parks and forests: 14 nights, numbered sites, two vehicles
- West Virginia caps a state park or forest camping stay at 14 nights from May 1 through Labor Day. Camping is prohibited except at numbered sites in areas designated for camping, not more than two motor vehicles are permitted on a campsite at any time, and a non-family camping group may have only one camping unit on its site. All fires must be confined to designated grills or areas. Operating a vehicle in areas other than those specifically intended for vehicular traffic is prohibited, as is dumping grey water anywhere but a provided receptacle. Dogs and cats are the only pets allowed, leashed and restrained. 37
- Wildlife management areas have their own vehicle rule
- Across 96 wildlife management areas the use of all-terrain vehicles, motorbikes and snowmobiles is prohibited except where specifically permitted by posted signs on designated roads and trails, and the speed limit is 30 miles an hour. Camping is permitted in designated areas only, and campsite rental fees must be paid before you occupy the site. Fires are permitted only in fireplaces, fire rings or grates provided on the area. These are working wildlife properties, not parks, and the rules read that way. 39
- Eleven of the federal campgrounds belong to the Corps
- The Army Corps of Engineers lists 19 West Virginia projects and every one of them sits under the Huntington District: Beech Fork, Bluestone, Burnsville, East Lynn, Jennings Randolph, R.D. Bailey, Stonewall Jackson, Summersville, Sutton and Tygart, plus the Kanawha River London, Marmet and Winfield pools, the Monongahela River Opekiska pool and five Ohio River pools. Eleven of the 47 federal campgrounds a vehicle can reach in this state are theirs. The district’s own site fails a certificate check from every tool used for this guide, so no Corps fee, acreage or stay limit is stated here. Call the project office before you plan around one. 35
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
