Beautiful West Virginia

Canaan Valley Creek

We're a few months out now from our fun West Virginia trip, and a couple things still stick out.  First, West Virginia is a lovely place, in a calm and understated way.  Second, we remain impressed by the number of vacant homes and buildings in the state.  We were in a couple cities where at least 70% of the structures were empty and crumbling.  One of our restaurant menus had a town history on the back that talked about how the town grew during the logging boom, shrunk when the trees were gone, grew during the mining boom, and then died when the mines were abandoned.  We think that the area's greatest natural resource is its beauty (oh, and the music), so maybe it's time for West Virginia to have a tourist boom - and maybe this time they can make sure not to deplete that natural resource in the process. It is a great place to get away.