Tygart Adventures — Attraction in Grafton

I would’ve given this place a four-star review easily if it weren’t for my issues with water access for swimmers and adventure lake goers, Me and my wife have stayed in the lodges before and they were about what you would expect. For the most part they were clean and updated. My only issue with the lodging was the mice!! If there are mice then snakes are probably not to far away. The staff did send maintenance with traps but then we had to deal with the problem of taking dead mice off of traps once caught. My only other main complaint is that Tygart lake State Park now has a water adventure Park included. This park has water pillows and many obstacles to climb and navigate in the water. You would be hard-pressed to find a kid or young adult that wouldn’t enjoy this type of play. That being said, there is absolutely no way to safely access the water. There is a rather abrupt drop as soon as you go from shore to water, and jagged rocks as soon as you walk into the water. My wife actually fell the day we visited and she is very lucky she didn’t fall backwards and crack her head like an egg. Once out into the water and amid obstacles your next biggest challenge is getting up onto the obstacles as only a few of these things had underwater “plastic” steps that assist someone with getting onto the platform. Imagine trying to get your entire body out of the water with a life jacket on, basically rubber against rubber…If all of these obstacles had those plastic steps, this place would be insanely FUN!!! My only other big gripe is getting down to the actual water from the place you pay and sign waivers as well. It’s a crazy hike…just work on actual water access and access from lodge to beach area and problems solved! Also, get an...

My partner and I (adults, we didn't bring any kids) had a great time here. It is quite safe but still feels a little risky/exciting. The biggest issue is possibly somebody falling on you from above but that can be mitigated by waiting for the person ahead to finish climbing up. I'm an adult with a slightly above average level of fitness and was able to pull myself up on most of the inflatables. It is tiring though. We did find ourselves helping kids up fairly frequently as some do require some decent upper body strength or a boost from a friend. The life jackets they provide are pretty broad sized so if you have your own I would bring them. We went on one of the busiest days of the week but it didn't feel excessively crowded as there are enough structures for everyone to spread out. It would be nice if they had a few more "easier" ones that didn't require so much climbing. I suggest don't plan anything too active the next day because you will be very sore. Also board shorts or swim shorts were nice to have, you enter the water pretty hard on some of the floats and there is lots of...

Let’s be honest. Having to descend a mountainside of steps to get to the “beach” area, if that’s what you call it. Rocks galore. Loungers in the hot baking sun with no umbrellas or shade. The other side of that is they have loungers to the left, good distance from the beach, but under trees if you don’t mind lounging at a 45 degree angle on the side of a hill. They’ve somehow managed to provide a road to the boat ramp 100 yards away but can’t provide a road down the mountain to the adventure park. Inflatables are fun, but that’s it. The climb back up the mountain with bad knees is not fun, forget the bad knees, it feels like you’re climbing my Everest. Very inconvenient if you are trying to pack anything in that had any weight to it. I won’t be partaking in the park again. I’ll go to Pleasant creek where you can literally walk on fairly level ground to get to the...