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Elk River Trail: West is the short Kanawha County segment of the Elk River Trail, a West Virginia state park on the old Coal & Coke Railway. It follows the Elk River for about four and a half miles from the Queen Shoals trailhead downstream into the town of Clendenin, ending at the Clendenin South trailhead across from the Roxy Theater. The mile nearest Clendenin is paved; the rest is compacted stone on a dead-flat rail grade. Public river access sits at Queen Shoals and at both Clendenin trailheads. Upstream from Queen Shoals the railbed to Hartland is not yet built; the East segment begins there and runs 44 miles north to Gassaway.
Elk River Trail: West
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Elk River Trail: West has about 110 to 154 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, e-biking, biking, 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: West!
In half of past years, color along the Elk River Trail: West peaks October 20 to 28, typically around October 24. The trail has 76% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, white oak, red maple, 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 West segment holds the Kanawha County end of the corridor, from Queen Shoals into Clendenin, the town the Charleston, Clendenin & Sutton rails reached first on their way up the Elk.
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