Gwinn Ridge Trail, New River Gorge National Park, West Virginia

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/27/2025	3.2 miles	1 hour 34 minutes	359'	2.0 mph	121 miles

Parking: 

• Brooks Mountain Road. Maybe room for 4-5 cars max.

Map:

• Provided at the Visitor Center

Directions:

• Take the trail from the parking lot in a counter-clockwise loop.

Our second stop of the day was down a gravel road. The road is only really wide enough for 1 car and has drop offs on the side. Luckily, we didn't encounter any other cars. There was one other car at the trailhead. This is a hike where I'm sure the park rangers don't send people to. The trail is overgrown, and we encountered several down trees. This doesn't bother us though. The trail is listed as strenuous, but the majority of it is easy, other than getting over or under the down trees. There is one steep hill which is short but strenuous, plus I'm out of shape. The hill was made even harder, because again we were being eaten by mosquitoes, and we were too slow hiking uphill to out-hike them. The rest of the hike they didn't bother us. Glen happened to have his mosquito headnet in his pack, so he pulled it out. I was so jealous! I have bug bites on one of my eyelids and my ears. This hike has no views. However, one thing it does have is hundreds of wildflowers. These were all flowers that are familiar to me - as they are common where I live too. We also didn't see any other hikers on this hike, so if you want solitude, it's a good one. When we returned to our car, we saw 2 men getting into their car to leave - they must have been just ahead of us. They complained about the hike saying how awful it was with the down trees and bugs and nothing to see. I guess they missed the hundreds of wildflowers?