David Sibray
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Spring wildflowers are on track for a timely blossom in West Virginia, according to staff at state and national parks. Unseasonable temperatures in recent years had thrown cycles off, but barring exceptional weather, 2014 should be normal. It could even be very good, thanks to ideal precipitation. I think this could be a very … Read more
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — ACE Adventure Resort will launch the first New River whitewater rafting trip of its 2014 season at noon Saturday, according to communications director Beth Gill. Three customers from McLean, Virginia, have booked the first trip, which will depart from the ACE visitor center at Minden, near Oak Hill, W.Va., at noon under … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia this week formalizes the adoption of “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” as an official state song, according to a chief proponent for the move.
I can think of few better sites for demonstrating what geologists call tea-table erosion than the Devil’s Tea Table at Little Creek Park at South Charleston, West Virginia. The park is easily accessible, and the round-trip trek on the Loop Trail is neither too long nor too strenuous for most hikers. The pay-off is worth … Read more
GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — More than one million visitors toured national park areas in southern West Virginia in 2012, spending more than $51 million during and supporting more than 685 jobs, according to a report released March 3, 2014, by the National Park Service.
The development team at West Virginia Explorer would like to thank ACE Adventure Resort for its support of the guide’s 2014 reboot, which will be unveiled in its final form in March. Among the chief sponsors of the reboot, ACE had long been one of the principal advertisers associated with the guide, which ACE’s communications director … Read more
Whether you love or hate trees, practical and profitable reasons to plant and maintain them exist. To some folk, they’re limb-dropping, leaf-littering sources of sap. Research demonstrates that their benefits usually outweigh their disadvantages. In West Virginia, where trees thrive naturally, parking lots and sterile fields can appear so unnatural as to lead to a … Read more
At least by the second week of March, West Virginians are being serenaded by a chorus of spring peepers, a sure sign winter is done. Pseudacris crucifer, as the little peepers are officially known, breed and vocalize when their wetland homes begin to thaw. After a long, cold winter, their voices are most welcome. You’re … Read more
I think that most explorers are motivated by a shared sense of curiosity — a need to know what lies beyond. Beyond the ridge. Behind the ranges. Beyond field and forest. Many of my own country drives and woodland hikes are lengthened simply by the need to see what’s around another turn. Fellow explorer Harriette … Read more
The 2014 relaunch of West Virginia Explorer has been deputied not by a jet-setting newcomer to the industry, but by our publication’s first webmaster. Answering the clarion call for assistance in the relaunch of more than 2,000 pages, Jonathan Moore has returned after 14 years, and I couldn’t be happier. Though a skillful webmaster, he … Read more
