Buffet and Bridges
Comment via blog
Prev
Next
|
Day 5: December 25, 2021 Buffet and Bridges Comment via blog |
Prev Next |
|
|
|
I picked up WV-20 almost immediately after leaving Pipestem State Park and
followed it all the way to Rainelle. I stopped at the Brooks Island
and Sandstone Palls Overlooks but didn't walk down the the actual overlook
at Sandstone Falls. The steep path created a scheduling issue. Walking
down was likely not a problem but I don't think I had enough
"time" to walk back up.
|
|
|
The last twenty some miles to the park were on US-60 which isn't exactly
boring.
|
|
|
I made it in time for my lunch reservation at Hawks Nest State Park, and
there was even enough time for me to check in but not enough to actually
go to the room. Instead, I headed to the restaurant where a buffet and a
table with my name and a view awaited. The last picture is the view
without the table. Then I went to my room fully
fed.
|
|
|
Hawks Nest is only a few miles from the New River Gorge Bridge so spending
some of my idle time paying it a visit made sense. The Canyon Rim Visitor
Center was closed but the path to the overlook was open. I parked and
walked out to take some pictures like others I've taken in the past. It is
said that the bridge reduced a forty minute drive to less than a minute
when it opened in 1977. This wasn't my first visit to the bridge but it
was the first with enough time at hand to consider crossing the river the
old fashioned way.
|
|
|
The old fashioned way is on Fayette Station Road. It's narrow and twisty
with multiple hairpin curves. It is now one way for most of its length
although it wasn't always that way, of course. There are numerous pullouts
where people can stop to take pictures or just study the bridge or the
scenery. Some have informative signs and at least one, shown in the second
photo, has a fairy door. At the bottom is the 1889
Tunney Hunsaker Bridge. It's a respectable 421 feet long but seems almost
tiny compared to the 3030 foot giant above it.
|
|
|
Back at the lodge, I heard some rather loud rumbling that made no sense
until I looked off the balcony. I didn't count cars but can tell you that
the engine was long gone around the curve on the far end before the last
car appeared around the curve on the near end.
|
|
|
Although the day stayed dry, clouds looked mildly threatening all day. The
only real damage they did was covering the sunset so that it was quite
blah compared to others on this trip.
|
|
|
I waited a suitable amount of time after sunset, then went out to see the
lights I'd noticed all over the space in front of the lodge. Up first is
the twelve days of Christmas then the display's title. The Midland Trail
was a coast to coast named auto trail of the early twentieth century. In
West Virginia, it was essentially replaced by US-60. Although there are a
lot more lights than I'm showing, I'll stop with a train and a river
scene. Kayaks and rapids and rafts, oh my!
|
|
|
|
The background for this page is a snowman/tree in the Pipestem State Park
Lodge. The music for the day is a Bruce Springsteen performance of a song
written by John Coots and Haven Gillespie. The video is from a 1978
Houston, Texas, concert.
Poking around the internet for this reminded me of the time that I saw Bruce do the song live in Atlanta. It was on the same tour as the Houston show. Once my memory was jogged, it seemed a fairly natural topic for a My Memories blog post. |
|
|
| [Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Next] |
