New River Gorge National Park and Preserve

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve covers over 70,000 acres along 53 miles of the New River in West Virginia. The Park Service calls the river among the oldest on the continent. In 2025 the park counted 1,958,440 recreation visits, a record in the Park Service's account and 8.1% more than in 2024.

Entry is free, so a visit's costs are the bridge walk, an outfitter and a bed in Fayetteville, Beckley or Hinton. We read the figures below on 28 October 2026 on the park's own pages, the official Bridge Day and Bridge Walk sites, Amtrak's, the airports', the West Virginia Tax Division's and NOAA's normals. The park's alerts and hours were read again on 29 October.

Why is New River Gorge free when eleven parks charge non-residents $100?

New River Gorge charges no entrance fee to anyone. "There is NO FEE to enter New River Gorge National Park and Preserve," the park's fees page says. The park is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks that add $100 for every non-resident aged 16 or over. A visitor from abroad therefore pays nothing at the park.

No entrance passes are sold here either. The Park Service sends anyone who wants one to the Army Corps of Engineers' office at Summersville Lake. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors explains where a pass does pay off.

The park runs no full-service campgrounds. Its eight primitive campgrounds charge no fees and take no reservations, with no drinking water, hookups or electricity, and a limit of 14 days in any 28. The Park Service names Hinton, Fayetteville and Beckley as the gateway towns.

West Virginia's sales tax is 6%, and Fayetteville, Oak Hill, Beckley and Hinton add 1% for 7%. Hotel occupancy tax is local: 6% in Fayette County, Fayetteville, Oak Hill, Raleigh County and Hinton, by the State Tax Division's list. The list does not say whether a county's tax is added to a town's. More in our guide to sales tax in the USA.

What happens on Bridge Day at the New River Gorge Bridge, and when is the next one?

Bridge Day is the one day a year when the New River Gorge Bridge is open to people on foot. "There is no way to walk on top of the bridge except on Bridge Day," the Park Service says. The event falls on the third Saturday of October. The 2026 Bridge Day was on 17 October, and the official site now counts down to Saturday 16 October 2027.

The day is run locally by the New River Gorge Bridge Day Commission. The first official Bridge Day was in 1980. In 2025, 315 BASE jumpers from 35 states and 4 countries made 752 jumps into the gorge, by the official site's count. The site also counted 222 Bridge Walk participants. Pets, bicycles, carts and strollers are not allowed on the bridge, nor are coolers, packages and large packs.

On 29 October 2026 the official site showed only a countdown, with no 2027 programme, hours or rules. Bridge Walk's own Bridge Day page still named 17 October 2026 as the next date, which has passed.

The Park Service gives the bridge's height as 876 feet, its length as 3,030 feet and its arch as 1,700 feet. The bridge "turned a 40-minute drive into less than a minute," in the Park Service's words. The Park Service also calls it the longest steel span in the western hemisphere. Its Cor-ten steel has never been painted, and the bridge joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

What does Bridge Walk charge to cross beneath the bridge deck?

Bridge Walk charges $79 a person for its tour, on the operator's own site. The Bridge Day walk costs $125, and an annual pass with unlimited walks for a year $235. The site does not say whether tax or fees are added. Bridge Walk is the only company that takes visitors onto the bridge, the Park Service says.

The tour runs on a catwalk 25 feet beneath the deck, across the full 3,030-foot length of the bridge. Walkers stay clipped to a continuous safety cable, and a shuttle runs from the company's headquarters to Canyon Rim Visitor Center and back. Tours run all year, rain or shine, with at most 13 guests. The operator says a tour lasts "2+ hours"; the Park Service's bridge page says three.

Walkers must be 8 or older, at least 48 inches tall, and fit the harness. Bags, food, drink and gum stay behind, and phones and cameras go on a strap. Reservations are non-refundable, though changes are possible at least 48 hours ahead. The operator warns that the catwalk is 10 to 15°F cooler than the ground, and advises booking ahead.

Bridge Walk's headquarters are at 57 Fayette Mine Road, Lansing, reached from the same exit as Canyon Rim Visitor Center.

How long does the drive down Fayette Station Road take?

Fayette Station Road is a one-way road of about 8 miles that takes 30 to 45 minutes, by the Park Service's account. One park page gives 8 miles and another 7.5, calling it "a mostly one-lane road". The drive passes under the New River Gorge Bridge three times and ends on US 19 about 2 miles south of Canyon Rim Visitor Center.

Vehicles over 12 feet high cannot complete the drive, because of a low railroad bridge. The Park Service does not recommend it for large vehicles, RVs and trailers, which may struggle on the hairpins. On 29 October 2026 the park listed no current closure on the road.

From Canyon Rim, turn left onto US 19 and go north 0.3 miles. Then turn right onto Lansing-Edmond Road for 0.4 miles, and right again at the brown park sign. On the way it crosses the Fayette Station Bridge, reopened in 1998 as the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge, and a car park at the bottom gives access to the river. The audio tour is a free download only, and phone reception in the gorge is patchy.

The other free views of the bridge are at Canyon Rim Visitor Center and from a rocky outcrop on the Long Point trail.

What is open in New River Gorge in November?

Canyon Rim Visitor Center, on US 19 near Lansing, stays open all winter. The park's hours page, last updated in October 2024 and unchanged when we read it on 29 October 2026, gives these hours.

In 2026 to 2027 the three holidays fall on 26 November, 25 December and 1 January. The park's four pages on Grandview disagree about when it closes in autumn, from late summer to the end of October. Every page agrees it is shut from November to May.

Canyon Rim has an exhibit room, an 11-minute film and a deck with a view two miles down the gorge. A short boardwalk descends to two observation decks, with an accessible ramp to the upper one. The address is 162 Visitor Center Road, Lansing. The Park Service warns that Apple Maps and Google Maps may send drivers to rough, inaccessible parts of the park, so enter a visitor centre's address.

On 29 October 2026 the park's alerts listed four closures. The upper part of the Kaymoor Miners Trail is closed Monday to Thursday until 19 November, and open Friday to Sunday. The Rend Trail is closed through December 2027 while a new car park, restroom and picnic area are built at the Minden trailhead. The Burnwood group campground is closed until mid-November for water-line work, and so are the Burnwood Trailhead restrooms.

Cunard Road, which serves the Kaymoor and Brooklyn Mine trailheads, is due to close to vehicles from 9 November 2026 until April 2027 for road construction. The road does not lead to Canyon Rim or the bridge.

How far is it along Endless Wall to Diamond Point?

Endless Wall Trail runs 2.4 miles one way along the rim, and the overlook at Diamond Point makes a popular two-mile out-and-back from the Fern Creek trailhead. The Park Service rates it easy to moderate. The river lies almost 1,000 feet below, and rafters' voices often carry up from it.

The Fern Creek car park "is small and frequently fills up", and cars parked on the road may be towed. The Nuttall trailhead, half a mile further on, is the alternative. Both are on Lansing-Edmond Road, which leaves US 19 just north of Canyon Rim; Fern Creek is 1.3 miles down it.

The lengths are the Park Service's; its hiking page does not say whether Long Point's and Grandview Rim's 3.2 miles are round trip. The park has over 40 trails, from a quarter of a mile to 7 miles one way, and ranger-led hikes run only between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Endless Wall is also one of the park's climbing cliffs. The climbing page counts over 1,400 established routes, while the Endless Wall page says over 1,600. The cliffs are 30 to 120 feet high, and most routes are 5.9 and harder. The Park Service names late April to mid-June and mid-September to late October as the best months.

What do Grandview and Sandstone Falls show of the New River?

Grandview's Main Overlook stands 1,400 feet above the river and takes in seven miles of the New River, by the Park Service's figures. Catawba rhododendrons flower there in mid-May and white great rhododendrons in July. The area is open all year, though its visitor centre closes from November to May. Grandview is off I-64 at exit 129, then six miles north on Route 9.

Sandstone Falls is "the largest waterfall on the New River", in the Park Service's words. The river is 1,500 feet wide there and drops 10 to 25 feet. A fully accessible boardwalk and bridges cross two islands to the falls. The Park Service warns of several drownings and asks anyone entering the water to wear a lifejacket.

The falls page gives the way from I-64 exit 139: ten miles on Route 20 to Hinton, then eight miles on River Road. Another park page puts the falls 22.5 miles from the exit, and our own routing gives about 15 miles from the Sandstone Visitor Center. The Sandstone Falls Overlook, high on the rim, is 600 feet above the river.

When do rafts run on the New River's Lower Gorge?

The New River has raft trips all year, with April to October as the main season, by the Park Service's account. Its upper, southern section has long pools and rapids up to Class III. The Lower Gorge runs from Class III to Class V, which the Park Service calls "some of the biggest of the big".

Licensed outfitters supply guides, equipment, transport and meals, on trips from a few hours to several days. The Park Service's list names seven outfitters licensed by the state, but that page dates from January 2020. We did not read any outfitter's prices.

Paddlers with their own boats find Class I to III water from Hinton to Thurmond, suited to intermediates. Below Thurmond the river turns to technical Class III to IV, for advanced and expert paddlers only. The Gauley's autumn season, covered in our West Virginia guide, ended on 18 October 2026.

When do New River Gorge's crowds and autumn colour peak?

New River Gorge's busiest months in 2025 were August, with 270,105 recreation visits, October, with 268,526, and June, with 263,425. January was the quietest, at 41,661. The Park Service says autumn colour "adds to the panorama in October" at Grandview, but no park page gives a peak week.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Beckley's airport, at 2,514 feet on the plateau beside the park. No NOAA station sits in the gorge, where the river and the overlooks differ from the plateau. Beckley averages 55.9 inches of snow a year, 107 nights at or below freezing and about one day a year at 90°F or above. July is its wettest month.

Can you reach New River Gorge on Amtrak's Cardinal?

Amtrak's Cardinal crosses West Virginia three days a week and calls at three stations in the park: Hinton, Prince and Thurmond. Amtrak lists eight West Virginia stops in all, the others being White Sulphur Springs, Alderson, Montgomery, Charleston and Huntington. The Park Service describes Thurmond as a flag stop for passengers with reservations, which Amtrak's own page does not say.

The times are from Amtrak's timetable as printed on 28 October 2026. The days it prints are the days each train leaves its starting city, so check the day of your stop when booking. We did not read fares. Greyhound stops in Beckley, and taxis are based in Oak Hill and Beckley.

Thurmond was a coal and railroad boomtown that handled 75,000 passengers in 1910, and the railroad through it is still active. Its depot was restored as a visitor centre in 1995. Thurmond is seven miles down WV-25 from US 19 at the Glen Jean exit. The road winds, and the Park Service does not recommend it for vehicles over 25 feet or trailers.

How far is New River Gorge from Charleston and Washington Dulles?

New River Gorge's Canyon Rim Visitor Center is about 56 miles from Charleston's Yeager Airport by our own routing, on US 60 and WV 16 over the mountains. Through Beckley on the tolled Turnpike it is about 86 miles. The Park Service puts the airport approximately 70 miles from the park, which matches neither route.

The distances are our own routing without traffic. The Park Service's figures are shorter: Washington, D.C. "5 hours", Pittsburgh 4 hours and Beckley about 30 minutes. Many park roads are narrow and winding, the Park Service warns, so allow extra time.

Charleston's airport has only domestic nonstops. American flies to Charlotte and Washington Reagan, Delta to Atlanta and United to Chicago O'Hare. Breeze flies to Orlando, Newark, Tampa and Myrtle Beach. Flights from abroad therefore connect elsewhere; Washington Dulles, by its own figures, is about 26 miles from downtown Washington.

The park is on Eastern Time, and daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on 1 November 2026. The rest of the state is covered in our guide to West Virginia.