New River Gorge National RIver: Sandstone Falls

We decided on Memorial Day, we need to escape the house! We are tired of looking at boxes, boxes, and MORE boxes to unpack, and decided rather than the traditional "grilling out", we would just run away for a few hours. We are within an hour of West Virginia, so it seemed natural to go that direction since there's so many unexplored roads for us there. So with no real direction in mind, except "West", we went!

"The largest waterfall on the New River, Sandstone Falls spans the river where it is 1500 feet wide. Divided by a series of islands, the river drops 10 to 25 feet. Sandstone Falls is located on the north-flowing New River, 8.5 miles north of Hinton, WV. Take River Road (Rt. 26) from the west end of the Rt. 20 bridge in Hinton. drive slowly as much of River Road is one lane.

At Sandstone falls, an accessible boardwalk crosses two bridges leading to islands and observation decks offering views below the falls.

Sandstone Falls is a popular fishing spot for smallmouth bass and catfish: a West Virginia fishing licience is required. The river around Sandstone Falls has been the site of several drownings - always wear a lifejacket when in or near the water."

Ducks! Oh my! You know how I LOVE ducks!

Hmmm...why, did we find a place to scooter?

Yes! I love it when we stumble across a handicap accessible place!

Great day for fishing I see.

Nice little boardwalk with plenty of places to stop and rest. It was a really humid day and the mosquitoes were having quite a lunch on me. The air was so damp and moist around the river and it smelled all woodsy and full of honeysuckle.

The side view of this bridge reminds me of Monet's japanese foot-bridges he loved to paint.

Hey! Wait for me!!

View from the bridge...

And the other side....amazing what a difference.

So I'm on my way to the end of the boardwalk to see the Falls, and this Lizard-Thing decides it's HIS boardwalk. I think it's one of the many salamanders that are around this particular area. He was not backing down despite the size of my scooter! Of course, Jeff was behind me beeping the whole time and yes, I was holding up a line. :) But I personally have issues with "wildlife" and "nature" and being a bit creeped out, I wasn't about to drive over this guy. You know me, I had the image of him catching a free ride under my scooter and I wouldn't know until he jumped out a few hours later while we're driving down the road. Yeah....that's how my imagination goes. ;)

Beautiful Sandstone Falls

Rapids below the Falls

We went scootering a bit down the road to get a better view of my ducks, and I spied this little guy. I had to get a real close-up view of him since he was only a bit bigger than a silver half-dollar-piece.

My ducks!! :)

Yes, I'm pouting...I wanted to take a duck home. There had to be a hundred or more of them standing above the Falls in the shallow water, just waiting for dinner to come to them. Smart ducks!