East West Virginia

We started out on the second part of our vacation by heading toward Seneca Rocks, WV, which compared to where we live is Eastern West Virginia. We went past White Sulpher Springs and headed up route 92.

This part of the state has a lot of flat land backed up by portions of the Appalachian Mountains.

There is plenty of land and water for farming and hills to make sure the water runs in the right direction.

We didn't find a lot of things to get pictures of along the way, but the Green Bank radio telescope was visible along the way.

The size of this telescope is hard to define from this picture, but according to their website the signal collection area is 2.3 acres or 100 meters by 110 meters. The height of 485 feet would fit in between the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building.

Our first real stop on day one was at Seneca Caverns.Above is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Below is a Fairy Pool.

Outside the cavern is a nice view of a really deep country home site.
Inside the Seneca Restaurant are some displays of local flora and fauna. There is also a bear who tries to attack unsuspecting tourists.
Look a nice picture of FabHub for once!

Our next stop was at the cross roads where the Seneca Rocks recreational site is located. This is the ridge that climbers like to use for recreation.

I didn't see anybody out there, but it may have been too early. I don't know when they would have been visible. I have a good camera zoom and used it to try and find someone, but no luck.

Our next stop was Smoke Hole Cavern.

It is a LOT more commercialized than Seneca Caverns, but still interesting. They do a lot more tours too I think, which means the lights are on a lot and more people can touch things. That makes it possible for more growth of things that are not natural.
This is rainbow falls, they added the concrete edge to make the water fall more dramatically.

These look like gills to me. Very old and very close to people.

We hoped to stay in Elkins that first night after having dinner at the new German restaurant, Schnitzel Haus Tyrol in Dailey, WV before continuing with our trip, but they were fully booked with 4 of 24 Little League baseball teams. We were so happy that I hadn't made a reservation.

We did make it to dinner and everything from the salad to the coffee was delicious. We will be back as often as possible. They are located quite a distance from our home though.

On our way through Elkins we found this statue of Minnehaha the wife of Hiawatha.

I can't find any reason for her to be there and I don't like how she is getting stabbed by the light pole, but there she is.

In other bad photo sights from our drive through Elkins.

This is a really big base for a really small Eagle statue.

We ended up driving all the way to Bridgeport this first day. Not such a long trip if you do it along the main roads, but we are trying to avoid all interstates and see what is on the less traveled roads of West Virginia for this trip. So between not getting in a hurry and stopping to look at things, it took us all day.

Well that was Saturday the 10th of July. More to come, but not tonight. Catch you later.