West Virginia Explorer Magazine

10/02/2026

West Virginia’s state parks, forests, and trails face an estimated $260 million in maintenance, equipment, and project needs. The non-profit West Virginia State Parks Foundation hopes to eventually bring millions of dollars in private donations and grants into the park system.

A new $25,000 federal grant will help it develop a fundraising plan.

The West Virginia State Parks Foundation hopes to eventually raise millions in private donations and grants for projects across the state park system.

10/02/2026

Fossils discovered in a West Virginia cave in 1796 became part of one of the earliest scientific investigations into an extinct American animal. The bones were sent to Thomas Jefferson, who studied them and later described the animal as a giant sloth.

For generations, Organ Cave was credited as the discovery site. New research points to another West Virginia cave — Haynes Cave in Monroe County.

Here's what the historical record tells us about the fossils, Jefferson, and where they were actually found.

Fossil bones found in a West Virginia cave in 1796 and sent to Thomas Jefferson helped scientists identify Megalonyx, an extinct giant ground sloth.

10/02/2026

Ever wonder why so many West Virginia streams are called runs and forks? A national study of more than 221,000 stream names found that “run” appears in 45.1% of West Virginia stream names, compared with just 6% nationally, and West Virginia ranked first in the nation in the use of “fork.”

The names on our maps can also preserve clues about settlement, language, families, and the landscape. Here’s what researchers found.

West Virginia’s creeks, branches, forks and licks have stories behind their names. A geographer’s New River study reveals what they can tell us about the state.

10/01/2026

Scientists are using tiny cellular trackers to follow endangered bats through the New River Gorge, and abandoned coal mines are playing a surprising role. Researchers hope the new technology will show where bats go after they emerge from mine portals and flit away into the night. (One monitored portal recorded just three Indiana bats in 2014. In 2023, researchers counted 125.)

Scientists are attaching tiny cellular trackers to endangered bats in New River Gorge National Park to learn how they use abandoned coal mines and surrounding forests.

09/30/2026

The first colors of the 2026 season are appearing in the state's highest mountains, particularly in Tucker and Pocahontas counties. Here's where the leaves are changing first and why the mountains around Dolly Sods, Canaan Valley, Snowshoe and Spruce K**b lead the way each fall.

West Virginia's first fall colors of 2026 are appearing in the high mountains of Tucker and Pocahontas counties. Here's where to see them.

09/30/2026

Nearly $20 million is going to West Virginia's state parks and forests, much of it to address infrastructure visitors rarely see but depend on.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced $19.725 million in projects Wednesday, including a new 34-site campground at Little Beaver State Park, expanded snowmaking at Canaan Valley, improvements at Hawks Nest and Blennerhassett Island, and funding for wastewater systems, paving, and other aging infrastructure.

Morrisey acknowledged that some of the work isn't the "sexy stuff" that attracts attention, but said it has been neglected and is essential to keeping the parks ready for a growing tourism economy.

Here's where the money is going and what visitors can expect to change.

West Virginia is investing nearly $20 million in state parks, adding campsites, snowmaking improvements and major infrastructure upgrades statewide.

09/28/2026

Autumn doesn't simply change the color of the New River Gorge. It changes how you experience it.

Cooler weather makes hiking more comfortable. Falling leaves reveal pieces of the gorge's coal and railroad history hidden by summer foliage. Whitewater season is still going strong, Bridge Walk offers a view across miles of changing forest, and October brings festivals and Bridge Day to communities surrounding the national park.

We talked with two regional tourism directors about what makes autumn different here—and what first-time visitors often overlook.

Here are some of the best reasons to visit the New River Gorge this fall:

Autumn changes the New River Gorge, bringing colorful forests, cooler hiking, fall whitewater, festivals and new ways to explore its history.

09/28/2026

Daniel Byers grew up in West Virginia and went on to make documentaries in roughly 60 countries before coming home to the mountains to film.

His new horror film, Dark Hollow, draws on the state's often violent mining history and an older question about what happens when outsiders come to the mountains for their resources. Byers says he sees echoes of that history in today’s debates over data centers.

But this is still a monster movie with a creature suit, blood cannons, sh****ns, and a fight inside a coal mine, and Byers deliberately turns one familiar horror convention on its head: the Appalachian people aren’t the monsters.

“There have been too many movies that paint Appalachia as the monsters,” he told West Virginia Explorer. “I wanted to tell the opposite of a Wrong Turn story.”

Much of Dark Hollow was filmed in West Virginia, including around Spruce K**b and underground in a Beckley coal mine.

West Virginia filmmaker Daniel Byers brings Dark Hollow home, using Appalachian horror to explore the state’s history of extraction, coal and outside industrial influence.

09/26/2026

Visitors to the million-acre Monongahela National Forest may have wondered why West Virginia manages parts of the forest. As always, there's a backstory.

West Virginia and the U.S. Forest Service renewed a decades-old partnership managing wildlife, trout habitat and conservation in Monongahela National Forest.

09/25/2026

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