Explore the best rated trails in West Virginia, whether you're looking an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Greenbrier River Trail and Mon River Trail. With more than 70 trails covering 4372 miles you’re bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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My Ride: Hardtail mountain bike with 26x2.2in tires. Did entire trail in 2 days. Avg Speed: 12mph
DAY 1: Started at the parking lot in WV by RT 22. Rode 15miles to the middle of the trail at the parking lot in Bulger PA and back to WV. Then drove to camp at the Montour Trail Boggs Campsite in the parking lot for that trail. Free and fine for one night. Total: 31miles
DAY 2: Drove to Bulger PA trail parking lot (15min drive) and rode 13 miles to the end of the trail that dead ends in Rennerdale. End of the trail is a parking lot and it appears like the trail continues but it takes you to someone's backyard..... I recommend turning around at the rock quarry with pavilion and firepit seating area. Afterwards I rode back 13 miles to the car in Bulger. Total: 26miles
CLIMB/DESCENT
Weirton-Bulger: 400ft Climb
Bulger-Rennerdale: 300ft Descent
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Weirton WV - PA line: 4miles Rough gravel, not packed well. Ideal for 1.75in tires and wider, road bikes will work, just won't be much fun. The trail follows a creek and has plenty of seating and port-a-john's along the way. One of the most scenic parts of the trail if you can get past the bad gravel....
PA line - Bulger: 11miles Trail becomes asphalt. Wooded area with bridges over country roads and creeks. Very pretty. No restrooms but a couple nice overlooks with benches.
Bulger - McDonald: 5.5miles Begins with sweeping views of rolling hills with small wooded patches right outside of Bulger, then quickly becomes wooded around the trail for the remainder. The Montour Trail connects to the Panhandle Trail. THE MCDONALD TRESTLE BRIDGE IS NOT ON PANHANDLE TRAIL. Get there by taking the connection to the Montour trail and then turn left (south). The McDonald Trestle Bridge is a must see but don't let the pictures for this trail fool you, you have to go a bit out of your way to see the stellar view. Google McDonald Trestle Bridge and Montour Panhandle Connector.
McDonald - Rennerdale (End of trail): 7miles Towns get closer together and roads are a bit busier for a few miles. Also the trail becomes packed gravel soon after McDonald. A few spots are washed out but not bad. From about Oakdale to the end of the trail it is very smooth for being gravel. Also within the last few miles is a parking lot for the bike trail and Fossil's Cliff/Neville's Woods Hiking Trail. Less than 1/2 mile from the hiking trail parking lot is a rock quarry outcrop with a pavilion and seating area with large firepit. Basically this is the end of the trail. Only a road crossing and a parking lot is past this. If you miss the end of the trail and go past the last parking lot you'll end up in someone's back yard.
We stayed on the waterfront in Morgantown and rode different trails over three days (June 15-17, 2021)...all accessed from the Caperton Trail. Day 1 we rode from Morgantown to Point Marion, PA along the Mon Trail North (about 26 miles RT). Day 2 we rode about 1/2 of the Decker Creek Trail (about 24 miles RT). Day 3 we rode the Mon Trail South to the Meredith tunnel (about 42 miles RT).
The folks who maintain the trails do an excellent job. We arrived after a severe thunderstorm the day before and the crews were busy cleaning/fixing the trails...Really Well Done!
The Mon Trails provide nice views of the river and you will see the dams and locks along the way. The Decker Creek Trail has some nice views of the creek and is cut through some rock formations that are very scenic. The Decker Creek trail has a bit of an incline as you ride from Morgantown to Reedsville...so the ride back into Morgantown is easy.
Overall...great trails and Morgantown is a nice location to stay and has many restaurants and breweries to choose from. We will do this ride again and maybe cover the whole Decker Creek trail next time.
The trail isn’t complete it’s just a short walk.
The Greenbrier River Trail has earned its National fame. It is a well maintained 78 mile trail mostly through the West Virginia wilderness. The trail follows the Greenbrier River from Cass to Caldwell, WV and runs through Marlinton, WV.
One of the more challenging rail trail rides because of the varied trail conditions.
The trail deserved a three star rating because there were sections where the surface was covered with large gravel which was extremely bumpy and threatened to flat your tires. We literally rode the edge, or off the edge of the trail for short periods to avoid the chunky gravel. Bikes with road tires would need to walk these sections. While the large gravel was used to patch the trail surface on many damaged areas along the trail, the longest stretch was between mile 18 to 19. There were other short rough sections but they were manageable.
The first mile of trail on the Parkersburg end, navigates past a horse farm through tall grass and ends in a random gravel lot behind a self storage facility. There is no trailhead parking here. Cut through the self storage buildings to access route 47. Once on route 47, it's an easy road ride to Parkersburg.
There were a couple other short sections where the trail crossed through grassy fields and doesn't look like a trail. You may wonder if you're still on the trail. While these sections are a little weird, it was easy terrain and actually added to the adventure factor.
While the inconsistent terrain brought some challenges, the scenery and wildlife more than made up for it. The forest along the trail is absolutely beautiful. The trail is flanked by rivers and streams which was home to abundant wildlife. We saw otters, turkeys, snakes, hawks, rabbits and many deer...one which bolted across the trail just a few feet in front of us.
By far the coolest scenery on the trail are the tunnels. The air temperature was a sweltering 94 degrees so the tunnels were a welcome respite. The tunnel acts as a natural air conditioner so we were very pleased to ride through seven tunnels between Pennsboro and Parkersburg. The trail surface inside of the tunnels was wet and a little muddy. There were also ruts and puddles which you can't see without a light. It was never so muddy that you couldn't ride through, it was just that you would slip and slide a little.
Overall, a little more challenging than most rail trail rides but it added to the whole experience.
June 5th - my brother and myself had a wonderful day biking the Panhandle and a little of the Montour. We started at the McDonald Trail Station and on a surprising note there was a pancake breakfast benefit. We met a nice couple that was working there selling the tickets and items benefiting the trail. Were awesome to talk to. We started the trail going east. We always enjoy seeing dedications to the war hero's - there was a very nice one in Oakdale. We met folks / scouts working on the flower beds that day too. Trails always offer things to see or explore. Rennerdale - there is a place you can look for fern fossils. The best part of this trail was near the end before Walker's Mill. There is a beautiful rock quarry that is a must see. We came back to the McDonald Trail Station and had some fantastic blueberry pancakes before going west. The trail station is a museum too. A lot of oil history. Not to far west is where you are by Montour trail. We did go over the McDonald Trestle bridge on our way back. It really is a must to do. Our west trip took us as far as Joffre. In Bulgar, is another nice war memorial to those that served. What was most enjoyable is a stretch where the trail travels through a large open area where it has a slight hill climb but there are some good pictures if you like this type of scenery. The day ended with good ice-cream in McDonalds at M.A.'s Ice Cream Shop. My brother had the largest 'small' ice cream cone I ever saw.
For me, this is by far the prettiest section. Much more wilderness... cliffs, open fields and wildlife.
This pretty trail is less than ideal for only a few reasons: 1) parts are gravel and parts paved, which frustrates riders who crave pave 2) it can be quite hot on a warm day, with too little shade for long stretches, 3) it does not parallel a stream or river, for those who prefer to bike along waterways, and 4) if you want to do the whole trail from PA to WVA in one day, stay overnight, and come back the next, the good news is that there are at least 3 motels near the trail's end in Weirton. The bad news is that they're over 1 mile straight up a long hill from the trail's end, requiring bikers to ride on the berm of busy Rte. 22 (or take the longer Cove Rd.) to the lodging options at Three Springs Drive. For those who might want to travel from Weirton to Pittsburgh and stay over, I know of no lodging w/i 3 miles of the Walker's Mill endpoint.
Only a few places towards the shinnston end are not blacktop very nice ride do recommend
This is such a great trail! Close to home, shaded,nice scenery and excellent trail condition. Only rode 2 miles, just started riding again and it was late, but plan on going back soon and doing a picnic ride. :)
We started our 3 day 2 night (Fri-Sun) bike packing trip in North Caldwell. We went to Cass and did a return trip. First day we rose about 47 miles to the campsite before the Marlton area. We had dinner in Seebert at "Jack Horner Corner" before camping. It is a multi purpose store. There is a grille, they had pizza, ice cream, package goods, snacks, some bike supplies and some sporting goods/rentals. The next day we had breakfast in Marlton and on the return trip we had dinner . Marlton was a small town. It had several food options and services. In Cass we visited the "Cass Company store. They have food, ice cream and touristy items. We did not look for any other services in Cass. That is pretty much it for services.
The trail itself was mostly two hard tracks with grass in the middle. There was a short section around Marlton that was paved. The trail was ok. I rode a hardtail with front suspension. Greg rode a hybrid without suspension. His hands tingled by the end of the days. Hybrid size tire were fine. Could get muddy in sections if the trail was wet. There were campgrounds about every 5 miles. They all had a table and area for a tent. Some had a water pump, shelter, comfort station or trash can. They all varied.
I suggest that you get the" Greenbrier River Trail" brochure or download it at https://wvstateparks.com/park/greenbrier-river-trail/ . It is rather helpful with trail info. Cell service was extremely limited. The businesses had wi-fi so we could face-time, IM or use Wi-fi enabled calling. The river was almost always next to the trail. It was scenic but the trail got monotonous. By the third day, I was ready to get off the trail partly because we did 70 miles the second day. The tunnels were short but you need lights. You may consider bringing a water filter. They were a couple tool stations but too far apart to be helpful. Horses could use the trail. We did not see any. There were some dried droppings. We did not see many people on the trail. We mostly saw day users around N. Caldwell on Sunday. The trail was nice but could use some upgrades to get into the elite category.
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