My mom’s side of the family is from south-central West Virginia and I’ve been visiting there for Thanksgiving week every year since ever before I was born.

New River Gorge National Park (which used to be New River Gorge National River until 2021) is less than half an hour from their very, very rural area and I’d never taken full advantage of that.

In 2023, we went to the park on the Friday after Thanksgiving to do the Bridge Walk. You get tied in via harness to the world’s largest uninterrupted suspension wire and walk under the New River Gorge Bridge itself.

The daytime tour is $79/pp and can be booked via https://bridgewalk.com/.

We started at Bridge Walk’s headquarters/gift shop which is adjacent to NRG’s main entrance and parking area. It has it’s own little parking lot but they advised that we just walk over so as not to clog it up since we’d be out for hours on the tour.

You can’t bring any valuables or bags with you, everything has to be left in your car. They do have a tiny locker available in the manager’s office, I think? Don’t quote me on that.

We met our guide and stood in a circle as a group as he explained how to put on our gear, and about some base rules about the tour itself. We got on a little school bus that unloaded us at the NRG parking lot and we walked down to the entrance of under the bridge.

We got hooked in to the suspension wire in a single file line with our guide in the front and then took our next two-ish hours walking slowly across as he entertained us with history and cool facts about the bridge and surrounding area.

The harness itself was all cotton and pretty comfortable. You’re attached from above by a lead that you gently guide against your shoulder as you walk. You never have to worry about un-attaching or re-attaching to anything so it’s super simple.

It was veeerryyy windy! This area of West Virginia is generally pretty cool this time of year, but being above the river without any wind cover was so crispy. Definitely wear gloves, a thick bottom layer, a good winter coat, hat etc etc.

There’s plenty of time to stop, take it all in, and take as many pictures as you want. That’s eeeexactly what we did.

After the tour, we went to the gift shop to get our National Parks passport stamp and then made the scenic drive around the park and under the bridge. This leads to the original, old bridge and a rocky beach where you can hang out and admire the view.

In 2024 when we visited my family, it poured inches of snow the day after Thanksgiving so we weren’t able to make what we hoped would be an annual visit. We really wanted to cross The Endless Wall trail off of our list, but maybe this year we’ll have better luck.

Book a tour via BridgeWalk: https://bridgewalk.com/

Tour details/FAQ: https://bridgewalk.com/bridge-walk-tour/

New River Gorge National Park via NPS: https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm

The Endless Wall trail via AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/west-virginia/endless-wall