The Endless Wall Trail

After a much enjoyed visit with Erwin's Mom in South Carolina, we got back on the road to make the long trip home.  As we did on the way down, we planned a big stop to break up the driving: three nights in our newest National Park, New River Gorge in West Virginia.  Our drive yesterday would have been about 7.5 hours if we went directly to where we are staying in Fayetteville, at the northern end of the park.  However, I convinced Erwin to detour to Grandview last night, which made our drive a little longer, but was totally worth it to get a taste of the southern end of the park without having to drive all the way back down on one of our two full days in the park.  Definitely worth the detour!  This allowed us to divide our time thusly: one day for hiking and one day for rafting.

The Endless Wall Trail is perhaps the most iconic trail in New River Gorge, so it was first up on the agenda for our hiking day.  [Well, OK, second.  First we had to stop at the Canyon Rim Visitor's Center to pick up a Junior Ranger booklet for Frankie.  No big deal -- we were driving right by, and it didn't take long because most of the facility is unfortunately closed due to COVID.  While there, we took the very short walk on the Canyon Rim Boardwalk down 178 steps to the Lower Overlook.]  Anyway, the National Park Service hiking page indicates that the Endless Wall Trail is 2.4 miles point-to-point, with a half mile roadwalk to get back to the trailhead parking lot.  We knew we didn't want to deal with walking along the narrow and twisty road, so planned an out-an-back from the Fern Creek trailhead. 

The parking lot is not very big and we got one of the last available spots.  The trail starts out in a beautiful forest of mature hemlocks, and then passes into an area with oaks and dense rhododendrons that made the trail feel like a tunnel in places.  It must be absolutely spectacular here in the spring. 

After dipping down slightly to cross a bridge over Fern Creek, the trail ascends at gentle grades and soon emerges at the first of the viewpoints along the eponymous Endless Wall: Fern Point. 

photo by Erwin

I got my itchy twitchy summit buzz and decided to follow one of the paths north along the cliff top, leaving Frankie with Erwin and my backpack at Fern Point.  I eventually popped out on another rocky outcrop with potentially even better views, and a lizard, to boot!  I tried to call Erwin and Frankie over, as I knew Frankie would love to see the lizard, but apparently they couldn't hear me well.  It turns out Frankie was working his way over to me anyway, but up on the main trail, as Erwin didn't want him on the cliff trail.

eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) shedding its skin

talking to the lizard

When Frankie and I didn't return, Erwin eventually grabbed my pack and came and found us, so he got to see our lizard friend, too.  Then he convinced we should mosey along, and on the way back to the main trail, I showed the boys a climbers ladder I'd found leading down below the cliffs (picture below).  Frankie and I both desperately wanted to climb it but Erwin was horrified so we didn't.  We continued along, first on narrow trails above the cliff (next picture) and then on the main trail up in the woods, far from the cliff, to ease Erwin's anxiety.  He was extremely unhappy about the exposure pretty much the entire time we were anywhere near the cliffs.  This is probably not the best hike for those with a fear of heights.

The next main viewpoint is Diamond Point, a large rocky outcrop that juts out over the river offering wide views in both directions.  We hung out here for a while, watching rafters float by on the river far below and negotiate the rapids -- that will be us tomorrow.  Fun to get a sneak preview!

photo by Erwin

From there we kept going along the main trail for a bit further.  We didn't think there would be any additional dramatic views like those at Diamond Point or Fern Point, but also didn't want to turn around just yet.  

We soon came to another climbers ladder.  This one was more open, in that we could see where it went, and I could not resist -- I just had to check it out!  In the spirit of harmony, I probably should not have gone down, because Frankie really wanted to join me and this caused a lot of conflict with Erwin.  To me, a ladder is not dangerous; Frankie has climbed ladders at playgrounds since he first learned to walk and has never once fallen.  Conditions were good today, sunny and dry (I might feel differently if it was wet and slippery).  Anyway, I allowed Frankie to come partway down -- we both stopped at a horizontal walkway and did not continue down the second ladder -- but Erwin remained at the top, seething.  I thought this was a decent compromise, because Frankie and I would both have liked to continue down the ladders and explore more, but instead we climbed back up immediately to appease Erwin.  We just have very different perceptions of risk (I am much more cautious than him around water). 

photo by Erwin

So after the great ladder conflict, we turned around and hiked back to the trailhead.  Once we got past Fern Point and he was sure we couldn't engage in any more risky behavior, Erwin decided to sprint back to the car, since he would be missing his daily runs on this leg of our trip.  He was still a little salty about the ladder incident and refused to let Frankie run with him -- my boy loves a good trail run back to the car at the end of a hike -- but it worked out fine in my book because he ran out his tension and put it behind us by the time we got back to the car.  

MapMyRide tracked this hike at 3.6 miles with about 500 feet elevation gain, but I think those numbers are somewhat high due to geodrift along the cliffs.  The Park Service says it is 2.0 miles out-and-back to Diamond Point.  We did hike past Diamond Point, and also detoured significantly in the Fern Point area, but not that much extra.  Anyway, it's less than a mile to Fern Point from the trailhead, but very much worth it to continue to Diamond Point.  I can't say what the trail is like past the second climbers ladder.  However, I later learned that the climbers have a trail the entire length of the cliffs between the two ladders, making a loop possible -- and that is the route I would choose were I to hike the Endless Wall again.