Summer is winding down

A couple of weekends ago, my dear Hive account@flowerbaby told me she wanted to visit Babcock State Park. I had only once been to this park a few years back. My girlfriend had not ever been there, which meant I was lucky enough to introduce her to a new place. I knew what to expect of the location, but she wanted to see it in person herself. As any good boyfriend would do, I made sure this became a reality. We ventured off one weekend morning and drove a little over an hour to discover what Babock State Park was like. The drive down to Babcock was filled with empty roads full of both curves and straight stretches. This made for such an amazing route for a man obsessed with driving such as myself.

A bit about the place...

One of West Virginia’s most iconic locations, Babcock State Park has 4,127 acres of stunning scenery. Located 20 miles southeast of the New River Gorge Bridge, the park is most known for the Glade Creek Grist Mill, a fully functional replica of the original Cooper’s Mill, which once stood on the grounds. Other attractions include recreational activities like hiking, fishing, and mountain biking, as well as whitewater rafting nearby in the New River Gorge. ^Source

This place is pretty far out and away from anything else. The closest town with much to offer is Fayetteville, which is a solid 20-30 minutes away. One of the main points of going to places like this is to get away from the busy city. Babcock is not a super busy place and that's a good thing.

To get to this place, we turned towards Hawks Nest, rather than Fayetteville. Then drove through Ansted and past Clifftop, where they host The Appalachian String Band Music Festival. Eventually, we arrived at a desolate park entrance that had a campground surrounding it. We were greeted by the mill, which wasn't running at the time. Plus there was a small gift shop with some other facilities.

There were a few signs that said to swim at your own risk. This was surprising, as I figured a place like this would attempt to restrict its visitors from swimming in the peaceful water. At least it was allowed, although neither of us brought anything to swim in. Mainly because Hive account@flowerbaby had a fresh tattoo on her knee, so getting in wild and wonderful water like this wasn't a great idea.

Since we didn't get in the water, we did at least take some photos with it. Hive account@flowerbaby and I both enjoy our pictures and it had been a while since we took some like this. What is funny is that just last night we were about to watch a movie and the idle Chromecast slideshow was on the tv. Out of all the beautiful places in the world that it shows, it popped up an image of Babcock just a week after we had been down there.

After photos, we ventured towards a hopeful hike. There was one we saw beside the mill, but it went straight uphill and looked totally exhausting. Since we were planning on making an adventure out of the day, we decided to not spend all of our energy on that hike right away. Instead, we drove up a giant hill and found Skyline Trail. We walked out it briefly, which lead us to a little building with what could have been a pretty great view. The only thing is, the plant life was so overgrown that we couldn't see anything but green below. Hive account@flowerbaby and I both were not really impressed with the hike. We quit on it early and turned back since it was a total of 4 miles with quite a bit of elevation, which we didn't want to complete.

To sum up our trip to Babcock State Park, it was just okay. The hiking isn't much to shout about. We failed to come prepared to swim, so we missed out on that opportunity. The gift shop did have some yummy fudge that Hive account@flowerbaby munched on. The mill is a fantastic place to get some amazing photos. Speaking of that, check out a few images of what we captured below.

^{Here is the popular Glade Creek Grist Mill. This is the main attraction at Babcock.}

^{Hive account@flowerbaby posing in front of the mill. She is wearing one of my tank tops and a pair of my socks. I can always trust her to make use of my giant wardrobe.}

^{Here I am sitting right in front of the mill. Wearing a headband is my new favorite thing. It is so useful when wanting to keep sweat out of my eyes.}

^{The creek had multiple pools which looked very swimmable. Usually, there are people here fishing, but nothing more than a few kids playing around on this day.}

^{Hive account@flowerbaby throwing up her famous peace sign. She has been doing that since she was a young girl and it never gets old.}

^{This photo was taken by Hive account@flowerbaby, she impresses me with her eye for photography. This photo is very well balanced, with a strong composition overall.}

^{I totally look like the typical West Virginian drinking a beer in this one, but I promise that is not what is happening. I was actually just sipping on a Bubly Sparkling Water. These have become one of my favorite drinks here recently.}

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Thanks for checking out my blog 😎🤝

I hope you enjoyed getting to see some of our little adventures around our lovely state of WV. I have been doing a lot of gaming content here lately, but it feels good to share our outdoor experiences and get to write about it again. For those of you that have missed this type of content, there will be more of it coming this week, along with my continued gaming videos. I appreciate the love and support, come back again soon.

^{Hive Artwork by: Hive account@daltono}

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