Beartown State Park — Attraction in Marlinton

Located on the eastern part of Droop Mountain, Beartown State Park is an 110-acre park with a fairly narrow access road. Its peaceful environment has been a nice spot to explore for over 50 years.

One of the nice things about the park…there was no getting lost in the maze of rocks as long as you stayed on the “elevated” boardwalk that runs throughout the park.

According to Alltrails app, the Beartown Boardwalk is labeled as an “easy” 1/2-mile loop trail. The wooden walkway does a great job winding you through the rock maze so that you have an up-close adventure. The downside…if you have mobility issues, I need to mention…there are multiple sets of stairs throughout the boardwalk trail.

I’m always amazed how adaptive trees are. Don’t trees need soil and nurturing to live? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen trees literally growing on rocks and other surfaces you wouldn’t think they could.

The horizontal fractured rock formations of what they call “droop” limestone could be seen throughout the park.

The towering trees were just beginning to change colors in this part of Greenbrier County when we were there. With trees as tall as 30 ft, Beartown is a great place for tree and...

About 45 minutes from The Greenbrier Resort, this is another must-see state park, albeit the main attraction - the boardwalk twisting through the rock formations and wooded area - will take you no more than 30 minutes tops to make it through the entire circuit, even at a slow pace. Only a small portion is HC accessible since this course winds up and down and through a lot of woods and steep hills.

There is no visitor’s center, no refreshment stand, and only one uni-sex toilet swarming with flies that reeked beyond words.

The road leading in is quite narrow. There’s limited parking, so if it’s real busy you may have to run over to Droop Mountain Battleground State Park (10 minutes away) or the wonderful Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Museum home (17 minutes) in Hillsboro and come back.

Lots of picture opportunities here of nature at its weirdest and most wonderful deep in the...

A self-paced journey of wonderment. The park offers a boardwalk navigates through natural rock formations and fauna. Beautiful surroundings I could have spent hours walking through. Though one doesn't have to spend long there, if you appreciate the beauty of nature, you will want to take your time going through. Signs offer information on highlights through the journey. It is a great place to spend some time duing hot weather since it is within tree cover and is cool and comfortable. Pictures and videos don't do it justice! It is much more beautiful than it appears. Some caution is warranted through the journey, though, as there are some slick spots on the wooden walkway depending on how much wet weather has occurred. There is handicap ramp that will allow people to journey through a large part of the way, but not completely...