Amy's Creative Pursuits: Hawk's Nest and Waterfalls of West Virginia

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Hawk's Nest and Waterfalls of West Virginia

This is part eleven of a travel series to West Virginia. To start at the beginning, go HERE!

After spending the morning in Babcock State Park, we started the drive to our pit-stop for the night: Charleston. But, of course there would be more stops and fun along the way, after all, this was a ROAD TRIP! 😃

Hawks Nest State Park

Hawk's Nest wasn't on our itinerary, but we had to drive right past it to get to Charleston. We had no plans on stopping, but since it was right off the road and looking absolutely intriguing, we had to stop. We first saw the Lodge, and so we stopped there to use the restrooms. In the back of the lodge is a beautiful viewing deck overlooking the canyon rim. There is a tram there which takes you down 1286 feet to the trails below, but it wasn't operating yet (the story of this entire trip 😐). There were men working on the tram, getting it ready for the season, when we were there. You can see the tram in the photo above.

So, since the tram wasn't working, we got back in the car and in just a few moments we found the Historic Area, so we stopped the car again...that's a road trip: stop, go, stop, go. 😀

That cool brick historic building above now houses restrooms and the building in the photo below is now the park office.

Only a few steps from the parking lot is the Hawk's Nest Overlook Trail where you can get incredible views like this. You can also access the Cliffside Trail from here, which looks really interesting on the map but it looked long and we didn't have that kinda time. 😞. The Cliffside Trail is a rugged 3.5 mile out-and-back hike that hugs steep rock ledges and drops 350 feet into the gorge. That would have taken us hours to hike, and we didn't have that kind of time. I can see coming back to this area and exploring it more; hopefully when the tram is up and running.

The Observation Deck of Hawk's Nest Overlook.

Once we were done drooling over the views, we did take a short loop trail in the Historic Area. We saw a cool pavilion, and another view of the gorge.

While standing on the observation deck, we heard a train coming and decided to make a video for the grandsons, who love trains.

Cathedral Falls

Back on Hwy 60 again heading to Charleston it wasn't long before we made it to our next stop: Cathedral Falls. Would you believe you can see this 60 foot waterfall from the highway? I could not, I'm use to hiking miles to see a pretty waterfall. But this beauty, is right off the highway and they even have a small parking lot you can pull over to admire it more closely.

We made a short video so you can get a better feeling of the moving water.

Kanawha Falls

And just a hop, skip, and a jump from Cathedral Falls is Kanawha Falls. This beauty is located in Glen Ferris, just downstream of Gauley Bridge. The building sitting almost on top of the falls is the Historic Glen Ferris Inn. It was established in 1812 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This area is well-known for fishermen and kayakers.

These 24 foot tall waterfalls span the entire width of the Kanawa River. The waterfall cascades over a sandstone edge. You can view the waterfall from a park just past the falls.