The Babcock Photo Page

Babcock State Park is located on the east side of the New River on Rt. 41 south of Clifftop. It features camping, cabins, hiking, fishing and swimming. We visited around October 6, 2001. We used it as a base to explore the New River Gorge area including Pipestem, Hawks Nest, Beartown and Watago State Parks. From there we moved up th to Cass Scenic Railroad. This is a beautiful park that features a reconstructed mill. The photo ops are many. Sone of these images are over 100k so they maybe slow loading, but worth the wait. Visit the official Babcock web site. The Glade Creek Grist Mill was constructed in 1976 and is fully operational. It is one of the most photographed locations in the state. Mill You can burn a lot of film, or electrons in this case, on this scene. We took a Fall trip hoping to enjoy the leaves. Unfortunately we were about a week early. That didn't stop us from enjoying the trip. Cabin #3 This is our home for several nights. 65 steps. By the time we unloaded the car, we had all the hiking we wanted for the evening. I did take a short walk to grab a photo or two. Up shot This shot is taken from the down hill side. It was difficult getting down there to get the shot. It was quite a nice quiet location. Inside the cabin was cozy. This is the only heat source. I should have taken a space heater but I forgot. It got below freezing outside several nights. One night we woke up and the place was full of smoke. The andirons protrude beyond the fireplace. A log had rolled out to the end and the smoke came inside instead of going up the chimney. At 2AM I had to open all the windows to air it out. That and temporarily remove the battery from the smoke detector. Outside Lets go back outside. This is Glade Creek. I flows by the mill and is just below our cabin. I guess it cut the gorge we are in. It is about 50 ft. below our cabin. A hike along Narrow Gauge trail proved interesting. It follows the old road bed of the Manns Creek Narrow Gauge Railroad that ran from Clifftop to Sewell. Rotten wood and a rusty wheel set is all that remains of this trestle on the right-of-way. We also found alot of coal along the trail. Doubtlessly it fell from the locomotives as the bumped along the uneven track work. Another bridge. But this one was once part of the right-of-way. The bridge abutments now support a pedestrian bridge. I would have preferred to see the trains crossing!!

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