Michael M. Barrick

Celebrating West Virginia’s Beauty on Her 160th Birthday

Today, others will be writing about how West Virginia became a state 160 years ago. Its story is an essential part of the American Experiment, so worthy of telling. In fact, one such article can be found here.

I’ll leave the writing to others today, because as I was growing up in Clarksburg, and later moved to Weston with Sarah, we celebrated West Virginia’s birthday by going to a West Virginia State Park or other notable location. Even while living in North Carolina, we have made regular trips to the State Parks and other favorite spots. The state’s natural beauty is the subject of countless songs and poems, pointing, I believe, to its true beauty. The deep greens of the last day of Spring appropriately coincide with the the State’s birthday, offering a birthday cake covered with candles of rivers, lakes, streams, hills, mountains, valleys, trees, flowers, birds, wildlife and all else that consists of the natural world which supports our lives.

Our family treats birthdays as sacred events worth celebrating in our lives. Nothing, I believe, speaks to the sacredness of West Virginia like the secrets found in its ancient forests. Below is a tiny fraction of the photos I cherish from our times in West Virginia. I encourage you to visit these areas — and so many others — this summer. Such a visit will help anyone understand why this publication is so devoted to preservation the environment.

tucker county: Blackwater Falls State Park

Water, as we know is the source of life. Below is Blackwater Falls, part of Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, W.Va.

Taking the time and energy to keep walking as close as allowable provided an opportunity to see this rainbow in the pool below the falls:

A walk along a narrow trail near the state park’s lodge in search of, well, whatever, led to this:

And a this:

A stunning sunset:

And a quiet, misty dawn in the Blackwater Canyon the next day:

pendleton COUNTY: seneca rocks and spruce knob

Looking east from Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia

summers county: bluestone lake, pipestem & sandstone falls

Bluestone Lake as seen from a cabin in Bluestone State Park
Sunset from a room at the lodge of Pipestem State Park
Part of Sandstone Falls on the New River near Hinton

greenbrier, monroe and summers county: alderson

Sunset over the Greenbrier River as seen from Alderson

pocanontas county: watoga state park, marlinton & more

A cabin in the county seat of Marlinton. The county is known as “Nature’s Playground”
The Allegheny Trail in Watoga State Park, the oldest in West Virginia
The Greenbrier River at Seebert, near Watoga State Park

monroe county: The springs area of southeastern west virginia

Colonial era Salt Sulphur Springs Hotel
The Jefferson Hotel at Sweet Springs Resort Park
The nearby ridges of Virginia at dawn as seen from the Lewis House of Sweet Springs Resort Park

© Michael M. Barrick, 2019 – 2023.

2 comments

  1. Thanks for the great pictures– they speak to what will always be my Appalachian heart, no matter where I live.

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  2. Oops, the Tucker County mountain laurel is actually a rosebay rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum). Which would be highly appropriate, as that is the state flower of West Virginia! Thanks for the tour!

    Reply

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