A Wild, Wonderful, 'Almost Heaven' Drive

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Each fall Alma Jean and I like to go on a fall foliage tour somewhere in the Valley area. Last year it included a tour of Skyline Drive from Front Royal to Highway 211.

Last Saturday we took a route far less traveled, a fifteen-mile stretch of winding mountain road that connects Lost River State Park to Moorefield, West Virginia. From there we went down Rt. 220 to Petersburg, where we enjoyed a good meal at Sue's Country Kitchen, followed by a visit to a former church member at Grant Memorial Hospital.

West Virginia calls itself "wild and wonderful" and "almost heaven", fitting descriptions for the stretch of mountainous terrain we traveled over Saturday. Although the fall colors were slightly past their peak, we found both the scenery and the drive breathtaking, and the fall weather couldn't have been more perfect. For my wife, some of the "breathtaking" part also had to do with the lack of guardrails at points where it appeared they could have have been prudent.

Interestingly, on our return home we traveled east on West Virginia Senator Byrd's famed "Corridor", a stretch of interstate highway strangely leading to nowhere, and covering roughly the same terrain we had navigated going west to Moorefield. But the contrast couldn't have been greater between that four-lane wonder and our "road less taken".

An amazing difference between the two. You should try them both.