Review of Spruce Knob at Monongahela National Forest: A must see destination in West Virginia

 

Spruce Knob, West Virginia 

While I was researching for a place to visit during our pack’s (myself, my wife, and our Pomeranian) month long stay in West Virginia, we came upon Spruce Knob.  Spruce Knob is the highest point in all of West Virginia at 4,863 feet above sea level.  This fact alone was enough for me to visit!

Spruce Knob is located within the eastern West Virginia and it is the highest ridge of the Allegheny Mountains.  The “whale-backed” ridge extending for about 16 miles, from northeast to southwest, has many of its peaks exceeding 4,500 feet in elevation.  Spruce Knob is part of Monongahela National Forest and Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area.

On a rather chilly morning during the middle of October, we set out to check out Spruce Knob.  As usual, we prepared our de facto lunch lately, of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is by far the easiest of lunches to prepare and more importantly, to eat.  Why PB & J sandwich, you ask?  Well, unlike typical sandwiches that contain some combination of condiments and veggies that drip and can be messy, PB & J sandwich usually stays together better…

We followed a small road sign to turn left to Spruce Knob from West Virginia Route 33.  Immediately, we noticed the terrain ascending, as well as the roads.  The roads hugged the contours of the mountain with tons of hairpin turns, switchbacks, and hellacious curves.  

We followed Briery Gap Road, then on to Route 112.  One word of caution about these roads:  Both of these roads are really narrow, and almost feel like only two small cars can pass at the same time.  There are no guardrails in most places, so you’re staring down at the precipitous drop to the valley below.  

It was nerve wracking to say the least!  It reminded us of our trip to Colorado’s Independence Pass, which travels high up in the Rocky Mountains, at elevation of 14,000 feet above sea level.

Although the Independence Pass was much more harrowing, the roads to get to Spruce Knob was harrowing in their own right.  At the bottom of the mountain, the trees dotting the narrow roads at least partially block the sheer drop below.  As we got higher and higher, less trees meant we could see the sheer drop only few feet from us.  I ended up grabbing the steering wheel bit harder than normal…

When a car approached on the opposite side, we had to pull close to the end of the road on our side so we can both pass.  I didn’t want to take a chance, so I always let the approaching vehicle go first.  You could tell the ones traveling fast from the opposite side were locals who were used to driving these roads.  We weren’t!

After letting the vehicle pass, we would then slowly make our way up the mountain, only to repeat the process the rest of the way.  When we made it to the ridge line, we could finally see the valley opening up right before our eyes.  The views were just wonderful!

View from the overlook near the Spruce Knob

From the overlook, we followed the signs to Spruce Knob, which is another mile up or so.  We arrived at the parking lot and saw there were already visitors from all over the place enjoying the area.  There were license plates from North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, among others.

We didn’t see a visitor center anywhere with restrooms, but rather an outhouse.  My wife declined the offer to use the outhouse, but I used it.  For anyone visiting Spruce Knob, do your business elsewhere if you can’t stand to do your business in an outhouse.

After finishing our lunch, we started to walk towards the gravel covered Whispering Spruce Trail and found these sign posts at the start of the trail.

Whispering Spruce Trail was just awesome!  We found tons of spruce trees which were still thawing from the previous night’s freeze, and making tons of creaking/croaking sounds.  We got bombed by several ice/slush/ice cold water mix as we got deeper into the trail.

As we walked among towering spruce trees, we noticed how incredibly fresh and fragrant the air was.  We each took deep oxygen rich air all around us and took some time enjoying the crisp air.

We arrived at the observation tower after a short walk, then climbed the 2 stories to the top of the tower.  It felt like we were flying thanks to the clouds that were beneath us.

View from the observation tower

Another view

Whispering Spruce Trail

After several minutes, we descended down from the tower to continue our exploration.  Past the observation tower, we came upon a clearing where a visitor from Charleston (WV), who is a recent college graduate, was on his camping trip enjoying his time at the Spruce Knob.  We stopped to chat for few minutes and to enjoy the incredible scenery all around us.

View from the clearing in the trail

After saying our goodbyes, we continued on and found another beautiful open area with views of the valleys below.  This place was definitely the highlight of the Whispering Spruce Trail!

My favorite view at Spruce Knob

Toby inside mommy’s bag being lazy!

We stopped to take in the views.  We met fellow visitors at this area who were sightseeing West Virginia for the first time.  They mentioned that they had never actually toured the state prior to this trip.  Like most people, they traveled through the state to get to other states, not realizing how beautiful the state actually is…We’re guilty in this regard ourselves…

We wanted to complete the Whispering Spruce Trail, so we said our goodbyes to continue.  Along the trail we saw more of the same but different, yet incredible views.  We saw that the trail loops around to the back of the parking lot, and we had made it back.

We got in the car to make our harrowing journey back down the same white knuckle, sweat inducing roads!  I’m happy to report that we made it safely back down…

In conclusion:

West Virginia is full of so many wonderful places to explore.  Like most people, we assumed too many things about the state:  we assumed the state didn’t have much to offer and we assumed the state is not worthy of our time and money.  We were certainly prejudiced about our view of the state.  

From our first day of arrival on October 1st until the end of October, we were treated with so many incredible views and experiences in West Virginia.  We experienced our best fall foliage and we got to drive on some of the most beautiful roads.

From New River Gorge National Park, Seneca Rocks, Beartown State Park, Blackwater Falls State Park, to Spruce Knob, we were incredibly impressed by everything the state had to offer.  We are also very thankful that we got to spend a month in West Virginia.  We are already nostalgic about the state, as we can’t help ourselves still singing the song, “Take Me Home Country Roads.”

We look forward to visiting the state in our future travels!

Thank you all for reading!

Jake

Wandering Money Pig 

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