One exit off I-68 leads to sandstone cliffs and a river gorge most Americans never find

It’s bigger than you’d expect from Exit 15

You pull off Interstate 68 and within minutes you’re standing at the edge of a canyon with nothing in front of you but a sandstone cliff and a river cutting through the gorge far below.

Coopers Rock State Forest covers nearly 13,000 acres along the rim of the Cheat River Gorge, and most people driving past have no idea it’s there. That’s the thing about this place.

It keeps revealing itself the longer you stay.

Stand on a sandstone bridge above the Cheat River Gorge

The main overlook sits on a massive sandstone outcrop connected to the mainland by a pedestrian bridge. You walk out over the edge and the canyon opens up below you, mountains rolling out in every direction.

There’s no entrance fee to get in, which makes it one of the better free afternoons you can spend in West Virginia.

Near the overlook, a swing installed as part of a state tourism initiative has become one of the most photographed spots in the state. You’ll see why when you get there.

A fugitive cooper, iron furnaces, and a stripped hillside

The forest takes its name from a legend about a barrel maker, called a cooper, who fled into the cliffs and kept working his trade from the mountain.

By the early 1800s, iron furnaces had moved in, burning through local ore, limestone and timber.

By the early 1900s, loggers had taken what was left, cutting the remaining trees for telephone poles, railroad ties and shingles.

The land sat stripped until 1936, when the state bought it back from a lumber company and handed it to the Civilian Conservation Corps.

What the CCC built here still stands after 90 years

Between 1936 and 1942, CCC crews built the overlook, picnic pavilions, shelters and an information booth using local sandstone and American chestnut wood salvaged from trees killed by the blight.

Eleven of those structures now sit on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can still see the craftsmanship in the stonework, the way the rock was fitted together by hand and has held for nearly a century.

The men who built this place were mostly young, unemployed and working for $30 a month.

Walk through Rock City’s ancient canyon passages

The Rock City Trail doesn’t put you above the boulders. It puts you between them.

The path runs about a mile through narrow passages between sandstone outcrops the size of houses, shaped by wind and water over roughly 300 million years.

The rock here is coarse Pottsville sandstone, the same formation that surfaces at Blackwater Falls and Spruce Knob. The trail is rated easy to moderate, so most people can do it.

From Rock City, you can connect to the Rattlesnake Trail or the Ridge Trail if you want more mileage.

Take the Raven Rock Trail for a less-crowded canyon view

Raven Rock is about 2.5 miles round trip, and it takes you somewhere most visitors never go.

The trail drops down through forest, then climbs a short hill to an overlook that looks out over more of the Cheat River Canyon than the main overlook does.

The surface is rocky with loose stones and roots, so wear real shoes. Go early on weekends because this trail fills up.

The reward is a view with no one else in it, which at a park this popular is worth the extra miles.

See the full scale of the overlook from directly underneath it

Most people stand on top of the main sandstone outcrop and look out. The Underlook Trail takes you the other direction.

It’s a short 0.2-mile path that leads beneath the formation so you can see how far the rock actually juts out from the cliffside.

From below, the scale of the whole thing becomes clear in a way it never does from the top. The trail is rated moderate and takes about 15 minutes.

It’s a quick side trip, and it changes how you see the overlook for the rest of your visit.

Walk to a 30-foot iron furnace from 1834

The Henry Clay Furnace stands in a grassy clearing in the forest, a 30-foot-tall cut-stone structure shaped like a truncated pyramid.

It was built between 1834 and 1836 and was the first steam-powered blast furnace in what was then western Virginia.

At peak production, it turned out about four tons of pig iron per day and kept a community of around 200 workers fed, schooled and employed.

The Clay Furnace Trail is a mostly level 0.8-mile path that gets you there and back without much effort.

Climb sandstone cliffs on thousands of established routes

Coopers Rock is one of the most popular rock climbing destinations in the Mid-Atlantic. The sandstone cliffs run up to about 35 feet and have a coarse, gritty surface that gives your hands something to hold.

Climbing zones like Tilted Tree, Roadside Rocks, Upper Rock City and Sunset Wall have thousands of boulder problems and hundreds of top-rope routes between them. You sign in at the climbing station kiosk before you go up.

Climbing in the overlook area is off-limits, and rangers enforce it.

Fish a stocked lake or watch for black bears in the trees

Messinger Lake sits on the north side of the forest, six acres of water stocked regularly with trout and holding bluegill and largemouth bass.

Pier fishing is available with a wheelchair-accessible ramp, and you’ll need a West Virginia fishing license. Only electric motors are allowed on the water.

The forest around the lake runs deep, and white-tailed deer, black bears, turkeys, hawks, foxes and ravens all live in it.

Timber rattlesnakes and copperheads are present too, mostly leaving people alone as long as people leave them alone.

Find old-growth hemlocks that were already ancient in 1776

The Virgin Hemlock Trail is a 1.2-mile path off WV Route 73 that passes through a stand of hemlock trees more than 300 years old.

Most of West Virginia’s original forest went to the saw long ago, which makes this grove one of the few places in the state where you can stand next to a tree that was already full-grown before the country existed.

The trailhead sits outside the main park area but the forest maintains it.

Nearby, the Rhododendron Trail loops through thick stands of the state flower, which puts out white and pink blooms from late June into early July.

Camp in a canvas tent or a cleared site under the pines

McCollum Campground has 50 electric sites after a 2025 expansion, plus a bathhouse with showers, laundry and Wi-Fi.

Rhododendron Campground runs more primitive, with 25 tent and hammock sites, picnic tables, fire pits and a bathhouse with flush toilets.

If you want something in between, Tentrr sites go deeper into the forest with canvas tents on wooden platforms, queen mattresses, propane heaters and solar showers already set up. Dogs are welcome on leashes.

Both main campgrounds run from April through late fall, and the Cheat River below the canyon is there for paddling, fishing and swimming when you need a change of scenery.

Visit Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia

To get here, take Exit 15 off Interstate 68, about 13 miles east of Morgantown. The address is 61 County Line Dr., Bruceton Mills, WV 26525.

The forest is open year-round, but the main gate to the southern section typically closes from late December through late March. During that period, you park at the first lot off the interstate and walk in.

Note that the main overlook pedestrian bridge has been under replacement since Dec. 2025, with completion targeted for July 2026. Check the official website for current status before you make the trip.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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