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Nan, Mama,

Thanks for this tour!! I have been to the site three times today amongst all the busy things all of us seem to be doing. Responding to earlier posts, let me mention a few from my own travels: Someone wanted to know the best parks for winter views. One must check with the state police for travel conditions, but winter vistas can be stunning at Hawk's Nest, Babcock, and Pipestem state parks. Hawk's Nest and (if I am not mistaken) Pipestem, each have aerial trams to lower lodges next to valley streams but these may be closed during winter months.

For history, and much less known, try the Marlinton area, with the Pearl Buck Birthplace, and Droop Mountain Battlefield. Near there is Watoga state park which is truly RUSTIC, with fewer vistas, but absolutely teeming with wildlife (bear, deer, panthers/mountain lions), and certainly with winter sights to behold under towering, snow-covered pines among barren winter hardwoods, draped over frozen mountain streams.

For nature buffs, Cranberry Glades and Dolly Sods, also in that region. Also, The Falls at Hills Creek, which cascade down steep mountains in a series of three falls, the largest being at the bottom. (It may not be accessible in the winter months however).

Not far away, for bed and breakfast buffs (and history buffs)is a place just outside of Marlinton known as Jerico. The owner has a main (victorian) farmhouse, circa 1910-1920 with several guest rooms. In addition, he and his son have found and purchased civil-war era cabins which they have numbered piece by piece, dismantled, and then reconstructed on their own properties. Probably 6-8 cabins in all which are each unique, and none too rustic after all, with most having heated (outdoor)jaccuzzi's for use in winter and in the cooler months of fall and spring (and wood-burning fireplaces behind glass doors inside).

If I am not mistaken, there is a West Virginia Bed and Breakfast website which profiles many places in this region. There may be upwards of 30 or so.

There is the old Pence Springs hotel and resort further south which also served as a women's prison. It is being restored floor by floor and on some weekends, offers special theme parties. Be sure if you stay to ask for the HUGE (not 'hugh', fellow Freepers...) bedroom in the center of the second floor. Nothing like it in any place I have ever known. Cost is surprisingly not prohibitive...

In Monroe County is a place called Salt Sulphur Springs. There is an impressive Manor house, with much history, an orchestra pit overlooking the main living room/ball room, and with outbuildings which now serve as bed and breakfast types of accommodations. (Call ahead first). It is pre-Civil War if I am not mistaken.

Lewisburg in the same region has the old Greenbrier Military Institute, the Carnegie Center for Fine Arts, the General Lewis Inn, a Civil War cemetery and a number of quite FINE restaurants and shops. The town seems nearly out of place in WV, moreso like far southern genteel towns in Virginia and North Carolina. As they say here, 'money folk' live there...

The Greenbrier Resort is there also, but there may be new travel restrictions due to recent terrorism alerts, so once again, people may wish to call ahead. It is the site also of the bunker to which Congress would have been sent during the Cold War in the event of a Russian nuclear attack.

I live in the far western part of WV, but these places are in the more mountainous (vistas, mists, Blue Ridge, God's country, Almost Heaven) regions in the southeastern part of the state, nearer the border with Virginia.

I could go on....but the post is becoming rather rambling...

Please, anyone, feel free to FReepMail me for additional ideas, or in order to elaborate on anything herein.