A couple of years ago we visited Watoga State Park for the first time. Coming of off no travel for 18 months due to the start of Covid, this was also our first foray into staying at a state park. We had a great trip and have since visited a multitude of state parks across the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. What we didn’t do much of during that first trip to Watoga is spend time exploring the hiking within the park itself. Instead, we mostly explored the broader Pocahontas County region, which has a lot on offer!

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On our fourth (and final) full day at Watoga State Park, we were confronted with spotty rain and the threat of thunderstorms. So, we ruled out a morning hike and an afternoon bike ride on the Greenbrier River Trail and instead came up with a new itinerary. We hung out in our cabin in the morning reading, headed north 30 minutes to the town of Marlinton for lunch, visited the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center, crammed in a 1.5 mile roundtrip hike to a beautiful series of waterfalls, before returning to Marlinton for dinner right on the Greenbrier River. Not a bad day at all for one that was entirely different than our original plans!

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On our third full day at Watoga State Park, we hiked Ann Bailey Trail (6 miles roundtrip) out to a fire tower and a loop trail that combined Busch Settlement Trail, North Boundary Trail, Buck & Doe Trail, and Bear Pen Trail (3 miles total). We ended the day by grabbing soft serve ice cream cones from nearby Jack Horner’s Corner.

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On our second full day at Watoga State Park, we hiked Monongaseneka Trail (5.5 miles after we added some neighboring trails to create a loop plus 2 miles on bike to return to our car), and biked 15 miles on the Greenbrier River Trail, which we accessed about 30 minutes away so that we could catch the segment of the trail through the 400-foot long Droop Mountain Tunnel.    

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Watoga State Park is located in eastern West Virginia in Pocahontas County, the county directly north of the more well-known Greenbrier County (home to Greenbrier Resort). The park is the largest state park in West Virginia at over 10,000 acres.

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