The Jeep is packed, the plan is (basically) finalized, and…Austin wants to drive the entire six and a half hours to our first destination? This trip is off to a great start if I do say so myself.
As soon as we crossed into the Mountain State, John Denver was promptly queued up and turned up. Unfortunately, we were still on the highway and hadn’t officially made it to the country roads that would take us home, but it got the point across. And before we knew it, it was starting to get dark, and we were losing signal FAST.
We arrived at Holly River State Park at about 8 o’clock, and neither time, light, nor 5G was on our side. We frantically searched the office area for our key and check in packet for our cabin, and couldn’t find any trace of it. Austin wrote down the park ranger’s number and we decided to drive back farther into the campground with hopes of seeing the other cabins. If you’re unfamiliar with West Virginia, let me give you a bit of perspective; there is barely any light pollution, thousands of tall, decades old trees, and lots of wildlife. It was, as Spongebob would say, “advanced darkness” that we were dealing with. And the possibility of bears, coyotes, wolves, etc.…needless to say, I was FREAKING out at this point.
As soon as we crossed into the Mountain State, John Denver was promptly queued up and turned up. Unfortunately, we were still on the highway and hadn’t officially made it to the country roads that would take us home, but it got the point across. And before we knew it, it was starting to get dark, and we were losing signal FAST.
We arrived at Holly River State Park at about 8 o’clock, and neither time, light, nor 5G was on our side. We frantically searched the office area for our key and check in packet for our cabin, and couldn’t find any trace of it. Austin wrote down the park ranger’s number and we decided to drive back farther into the campground with hopes of seeing the other cabins. If you’re unfamiliar with West Virginia, let me give you a bit of perspective; there is barely any light pollution, thousands of tall, decades old trees, and lots of wildlife. It was, as Spongebob would say, “advanced darkness” that we were dealing with. And the possibility of bears, coyotes, wolves, etc.…needless to say, I was FREAKING out at this point.
With patience and perseverance, we found the other office for cabin camping, and promptly found our information and key. Alright, with Austin’s patience and perseverance…I’m just happy I didn’t cry. We parked, walked back the 100 feet or so to the cabin, and unlocked our home for the night. It was gorgeous, the definition of simplistic woodland cottagecore. We were gifted a bundle of wood for the fireplace, and pleased to find a full kitchen awaiting us. We started up the fire and got settled in right away. Since the kitchen was so accessible, we decided to make an oldie but a goodie for dinner, hobo stew. There are tons of versions of this, but we went with the classic; smoked sausage, canned whole potatoes, and canned cut green beans. Throw it in a pot, season it, and you’ve got hobo stew. Oh, and to make it ~classy~, we paired it with a cabernet in our solo cups *chef’s kiss*.
The next morning, we woke up early to explore one of the trails before heading to our next destination. While Austin was getting ready, I decided to dump the leftover green beans by a tree instead of throwing them in the trash. As I was washing the pot to pack up, I looked out the kitchen window and saw something large moving. Traumatized from last night, I instantly froze, expecting the worst. But it was just a precious little deer looking for some green beans. I went and told Austin to be as quiet as possible and to come look. We went back out and saw that it wasn’t just one, but a family of three deer coming to check out the dumped stew. They didn’t run when we went out to the porch, so we hung out with them for a while until they wandered back into the thick of the forest.
The next morning, we woke up early to explore one of the trails before heading to our next destination. While Austin was getting ready, I decided to dump the leftover green beans by a tree instead of throwing them in the trash. As I was washing the pot to pack up, I looked out the kitchen window and saw something large moving. Traumatized from last night, I instantly froze, expecting the worst. But it was just a precious little deer looking for some green beans. I went and told Austin to be as quiet as possible and to come look. We went back out and saw that it wasn’t just one, but a family of three deer coming to check out the dumped stew. They didn’t run when we went out to the porch, so we hung out with them for a while until they wandered back into the thick of the forest.
The hike we took was breathtaking; it followed along side Holly River, so the sounds of the water were never far. The river was to our left, and a steep, bellowing mountainside was directly to our right, making the path thin and rugged. We had to watch our steps, but we both love advanced hiking, so we were in heaven. Instead of signage to direct hikers, certain trees were tagged with colored paint so one could follow the path. We followed blue, and it led us to a bridge where we got an amazing view of the length of the river. We were on a bit of a time crunch to get the key returned, so we turned around here and went back to the car.
I would love to go back and spend a few days exploring this beautiful state and unbelievable park. With how dense the woods are in this area, I would absolutely choose to stay in a cabin again as opposed to tent camping, just for safety and sanity reasons. Our cabin cost us $110 for the night, which is less expensive and much nicer than the hotels we considered. We thought about staying a second night, but there was another reservation directly after us. So, if you’re considering visiting this park, I would suggest planning a month ahead at least to secure the time frame that works for you and yours. But as for us, we were off to our next adventure, Harper’s Ferry.