National Park Service Superintendent Trish Kicklighter says that as crews continue to assess flood impacts to campgrounds, parking lots, boat launches, beaches, roads, and trails at New River Gorge National River, Bluestone National Scenic River, and Gauley River National Recreation Area, a few additional closures have been added to the West Virginia sites.
Floodwaters from last week's storms have left behind large amounts of muddy debris, downed trees, rockslides, landslides, and damaged roadways, bridges and culverts.
"Most of the facilities in the three parks are open," Superintendent Kicklighter said Wednesday. "However, as our crews reach more areas, we are finding severe damage to roads and bridges in a few locations. We are still working on assessing all of the park trails, but most are open. Trail users should expect downed trees, muddy conditions and localized washouts near ditches and stream crossings. Folks should report major hazards to park visitor centers."
The following areas are officially CLOSED until further notice:
New River Gorge National River:
Roads: Route 82/Fayette Station Road, north side; Keeneys Creek Road, approximately 1 mile below Winona, and all the way to Nuttallburg; Lower Beach Access Road, near Sandstone Falls
Campsites: Walk-in campsites at Grandview Sandbar and Glade Creek (drive-in sites are open)
River access points: Hellems Beach on River Road;Brooks landing/boat launch
Park Facility: Nuttallburg Historic Site;Camp Brookside Environmental Education Center (and road into it).
Trails: All trails in the Nuttallburg area including: Keeneys Creek, Nuttall Mine, Nuttallburg Conveyor, Nuttallburg Tipple, Nuttallburg Townsite trails
Gauley River National Recreation Area:
River access points: Masons Branch (and road into it), Woods Ferry (and road into it)
Bluestone National Scenic River:
Localized flooding near Lilly is currently preventing access to park facilities via Bluestone River Road
An up-to-date status of state-owned roadways is available 24/7 at www.wv511.org. Engineers from the Federal Highway Administration will visit the park this week to evaluate additional park-owned roads and bridges. As other park facilities are opened or closed, updates will be posted on the parks' Facebook account at www.facebook.com/newrivergorgenps, and through Twitter at @NewRiverNPS. Park information and tools to help plan a visit are also online at www.nps.gov/neri,www.nps.gov/gari, and www.nps.gov/blue.
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Comments
Thanks for reporting on this! We were up in the Dolly Sods Wilderness and I was worried we'd see some of the flooded territory around there, but it was just about normal mudiness :)
Love Dolly Sods! It was my introduction to wild and wonderful West Virginia backcountry so many years ago when I was a freshman at WVU.