Once again, we woke up early, hoping to maximize our early-morning daylight (and early-morning hopefully traffic-free roads). Outside it was all fog and mist, but looking up, one could see that it was just a thick layer of ground cloud. I wondered to myself if we might get some above-the-clouds views if we were able to head up to some sort of high pass before the morning mists burned off. I took a few shots of the scenic bits of downtown Elkins, before we headed off, continuing south.
The Elkins Iron Horse Statue
Randolph County Courthouse
Our first segment of the day - US-250, a multiple-state highway that cuts in a sort of northwest-to-southeast path across West Virginia. We had discovered bits of US-250 on our 2008 trip, and had come away very impressed. It is quite wide and impeccably paved and banked. Today we followed it through a section of the Monongahala National Forest, enjoying especially the tight twisties up the western side of Cheat Mountain.
Heading out of the Valley
Deer Creek Valley Farmlands
We then turned off of US-250, crossing back over Cheat Mountain once again on a narrow but tighter regional highway, WV-66. Again, perfect pavement, super tight twisties, and little traffic. We also took a side trip up to the alpine resort of Snowshoe, high up at well over 4,500 feet on Cheat Mountain. It was suprisingly busy up there - some sort of archery conference or meetup.
Deer Creek Valley Farmlands
Finished with our back-and-forth over Cheat Mountain, we hopped onto another US-class highway - US-219, and once again, heading south. US-219 has some really excellent sections between the various little towns that it runs through, including an incredible section of tight, continuous esses just south of the town of Marlinton. And all of these spots (i.e. outside of the towns) were signed at a full 55-mph. I wish I could have captured the "wows" that Luke was expressing over the two-way radios.
courtesy LWard
