TravelGuides

(TGA) - I will be traveling through West Virginia in late June. I am a photographer and will be around Lewisburg and Petersburg. Any suggestions for really photographic scenery. Everything looks beautiful. Also interested in going to Dolly Sods Preserve Bear Rocks for sunset or sunrise photos. Can't figure out how to get to Bear Rocks and if it is a long hike to the scenic area. Any suggstions or help would be great.
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From Petersburg, take Rt. 55/28 to Jordan Run. Turn right on Jordan Run (which it says is Co Rt. 28/7) Go to Public Road 75 (which is a dirt/gravel road) and follow it up to Bear Rocks and the sods area. The gravel road is about 4-5 miles of uphill, but we saw lots of cars on it. We were hiking, so I didn't pay any attention to whether they were front wheel drives. As well as I remember, the road is wide and not terribly winding. (Although this IS WV and roads to wind around.....) Go to Google.com/maps and I think you can easily see this route. You can also put it on "satellite" view to get a different perspective...can even see some of the trail around Bear Rocks.
Here is a link to our online journal that has a photo of Bear Rocks taken on June 28.
www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=285800
You can back up one day from that and see a photo of Blackwater Falls too and back up one more day for a view of Blackwater Canyon area.
Here are 2 more links to trail photos we took in the Sods.
www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=474926
www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=474927
Senaca Rocks are also worth a stop, as is Canaan Valley and Blackwater Falls. The trip up to Whittaker Station at Cass is beautiful in fall, but I have never made the trip in summer. Enjoy your trip! If you go in June the laurel or rhodedendron should be exquisite...especially on the Harmon Trail in the sods, but this is in the eastern section of the sods. If you need more info contact me and I can send you a link to a map of the area.
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I meant to say a map of the trail through the Dolly Sods area.
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And I should have said the Harmon trail was in the WESTERN section of the sods.....
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Hi
Here's a link to some West Virginia pictures we took. You'll see a couple of Dolly Sods buttons at the top and then find several pictures. Many are digital but some are scanned from prints as our cameras evolved over the years.
www.alandsuejohnson.com/w_va_places.htm
We've never gone up the way the previous poster mentioned but its easy to find Bear Rocks. You'll get to the top and make a very sharp left turn. There's a parking area there that you can't miss unless its real foggy.
You can see the rocks right beside the road. You'll likely want hiking boots to climb around. You'll probably want to get out on the rocks in some of the pictures. A couple of things to be careful of for sunrise and sunset pictures. You have to come up a road that isn't straight in the dark for sunrise. You have to go back down in the dark for sunset pictures. As I recall, the road isn't too bad but still in the dark be careful.
I don't know where your route takes you but Blackwater Falls is pretty and not far.
Have you ever taken sunrise photos at Assategue Island in VA?
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