Babcock State Park is near Clifftop, West Virginia and is located near the New River Gorge. The park is rugged and beautiful. We stayed at this park while exploring the New River Gorge.

Babcock State Park is also home to the Glade Creek Grist Mill. The mill is known as the most photographed location in the state of West Virginia. The mill was built in 1976 as a recreation of Cooper’s Mill that once stood where the parking lot is currently.

The mill is situated on Glade Creek. The creek is full of boulders and the creek rushes around the rocks and even creates a waterfall.

If you walk around the picturesque stone stairs of the gift shop and administration building, you can get a closer view of the creek.

After checking out the mill, on the road near the mill is the trailhead for the Island In The Sky Trail.

The trail is rocky and steep in sections, but not too long.

The trail curves upward towards the top of the mountain. One of my favorite features on this trail was the wooden ladder tucked into the side of the cliff to take you to the next level.

The view from the top is not as spectacular as some of the other overlooks in the park, but the trail terrain makes up for it.

We followed the trail along the top of the ridge to the other trailhead. From here, we walked the road back down to the mill.

I also noticed on the park map, that there was a swinging bridge. Since I love bridges, we decided to go see if we could find it. The bridge is located on Glade Creek between the two cabin sections. We took the very narrow road past the mill. There are several pull offs along this road for each cabin and turning around on this narrow road can be a bit precarious. There was a larger pull off on the left side of the road near Cabin 7 and 8. There was a paved, moss lined trail that led between the cabins and down to the swinging bridge.

We also checked out the Natural Arch trail which is a short trail and as its’ name suggest features a natural arch.

From here, we drove to the overlooks.

Babcock State Park is also home to Boley Lake where you can rent paddle boats.

You can see a park map HERE and also check out what we did below.

CAMPGROUND REVIEW:

We stayed in Site 27 which had electric and was about 50 feet away from the centrally located water spigot in the middle of the loop. Since we couldn’t quite reach with our hoses, we went and filled up the the water station that was just inside the entrance to the campground. Our site was nice and spacious. The site parallels the road and was a bit difficult to get into since the turn was tight. There was a large tree with a lot roots which did not bother us, but might be a problem for some people. Behind the tree and camper was the fire ring and picnic table. The sites in this look felt spacious and not too close together. The bathrooms were clean, but could be updated. The showers were a bit small, but had hot water and good pressure. The staff were very friendly at the check-in station.

Overall, Babcock State Park was a great location to camp while exploring the New River Gorge, but is also a great park and has plenty of activities.

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