RailTrailWxRailTrailWx
E-bikingBikingWalkingRunningHikingBirdingFishingKayakingHorseback ridingand more
Elk River Trail: East is the long northern segment of the Elk River Trail, a West Virginia state park on the old Coal & Coke Railway. It runs 44 miles down the Elk River from the depot town of Gassaway in Braxton County to Hartland in Clay County, passing Frametown, Strange Creek, Duck, Ivydale, and the Dundon visitor center where Buffalo Creek meets the Elk. The surface is compacted stone on a rail grade that never rises more than a whisper. Trailheads at Frametown, Duck, Dundon, and Hartland double as kayak launches. Beyond Hartland the railbed toward Queen Shoals is not yet built; the West segment picks up there and ends in Clendenin.
Elk River Trail: East
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Elk River Trail: East has about 106 to 153 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, birding, running, and walking, with April, October, and November the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Elk River Trail: East!
In half of past years, color along the Elk River Trail: East peaks October 19 to 27, typically around October 23. The trail has 75% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, red maple, white oak, chestnut oak, and sugar maple.
The Coal & Coke Railway shipped its first carload of coal out of this valley to the Midwest on December 3, 1905. Former Senator Henry Gassaway Davis had incorporated the company in 1902 to link Charleston with his coal lands near Elkins. He bought 64 miles of track the Charleston, Clendenin & Sutton Railroad had already laid up the Elk River, then pushed new rails east through twelve tunnels and over 30 steel bridges. The new town of Gassaway, named for Davis, rose on the Elk as the halfway point and shop town. After Davis died in 1916, the Baltimore & Ohio bought control and ran the line as its Charleston branch. Buffalo Creek coal, fed onto the line at Dundon, kept the valley busy for decades. From 1989 the short line Elk River Railroad hauled that coal between Hartland and Burnsville, until the last mine loadout closed in 1999. Owner Frank Jorgenson sold the idle lower railbed to the state. Governor Jim Justice cut the ribbon on Elk River Trail State Park in 2019, and the first sections opened to the public in stages from 2020. The last trains north of Hartland stopped in 2022, and that stretch became trail too. West Virginia State Parks runs the trail, with the citizen-led Elk River Trail Foundation alongside. This East segment holds Gassaway, the hamlets of Frametown, Strange Creek, Duck, and Ivydale, the Buffalo Creek junction at Dundon, and the Pisgah Bridge at Clay before it ends at Hartland.
Buffalo Creek Rails-With-Trail
