Chief Logan State Park, West Virginia, hiking review with photos

B

Bob W

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Dec 31, 2000
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Arriving in West Virginia a day early for a job, I wanted to get outdoors and get some exercise, especially after being on the road for three full days. The region is surrounded by national forest, which I'm sure offers great wilderness hiking opportunities, but vehicle and time limitations required a location reasonably close by and without extensive gearing-up or research.

Within a few miles of Logan, W.V. is the Chief Logan State Park. According to the state park website, Chief Logan SP is over 4000 acres and the state's newest park. The online map showed a series of hiking trails of various lengths and the website claims over 18 miles of hiking trails total.

First thing that was evident upon entering the park, it is highly developed. There are paved roads in every valley and a variety of facilities including rv campground, picnic areas, playgrounds, amphitheater, historic monuments, and even a large modern museum. Accessible from a different highway is a large conference center on the same property. The prospects for a natural outdoor experience aren't looking good at this point...

Working in my favor was the weather: cool, rainy, and cloudy.

So I set about finding a central location to park the pickup truck with cargo trailer, and choosing a hiking trail to begin.

The hiking was a very pleasant surprise. I hiked several of the available trails and didn't see another person the entire time. Due to recent rains there were not even any other footprints in the mud.

The main hike was a counter-clockwise loop starting at the park office and consisting of the Backbone, Lake Shore, and Buffalo Trails, ending at the museum. A walk through the museum (very nice displays of local coal mining history and artwork dedicated to victims of mining accidents) and a shorter hike on the Waterfall Trail was just enough to occupy the available time.

Now to the pictures:
 
With the tree cover and other vegetation, there wasn't an open view for scenery photography the entire day. But I think these trail and "living things" photos will give a reasonable idea what the area is like.

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A couple of pointers for anyone considering a trip to Chief Logan S.P.:

A May weekend probably isn't the best time to visit. Vegetation limits the views and warm weather brings crowds. Even with the rain and clouds there were multiple families having large get-togethers in the covered picnic areas. There weren't any mosquitoes or ticks, but poison ivy was up and green. There were a few wildflowers about, but I have a feeling there would have been many more a few weeks earlier.

There are 4,000 acres, some of which is developed and very little of the rest is covered with hiking trails. But the entire area is covered in zig-zags of old logging (?) roads, which would make easy access for off-trail semi-wilderness travel. One would have to check the state park regulations of course. But if someone were to study the topo maps and come up with off-trail sites of interest, winter or early spring would be prime exploring season. For example, there are prominent hills at each end of the "Backbone" ridge that would likely offer stunning views of the surrounding hills and valleys, if someone had an interest to hike up them. The poison ivy and time constraints today limited my travel to the marked trails.

Don't dilly-dally with the trails that parallel the developed valleys, Buffalo Trail and Waterfall Trail for example. Not even the birds and wind could mask the sound of constant vehicle traffic and pic-nickers. Instead head straight onto the trails that head away from the developed areas and farther into the backcountry. Backbone Trail was perfect, as I suspect the Wilderness Trail also is.

One short and close trail I'd like to hike, if given the chance to revisit the park, is the Coal Mine Trail. Apparently there are physical remnants of the coal mine that existed on the property long ago.

Thinking to myself, the park is likely much less visited on weekdays, perhaps offering a more natural outdoor experience. Also the hiking trails on the conference center side of the property may much less visited since conference attendees probably aren't spending their days hiking around. There's also a Wildlife Management Area shown on the map adjacent to the park that would be worth investigating.
 
Beautiful pix. Southern WV has great hiking. I'm from Princeton in Mercer County, so I spent a good bit of time not far from where you are. Pipestem was my fav park for hiking (still is, I just can't get back there often enough) but we've hiked at Pinnacle Rock, Grandview, Camp Creek, some of the Greenbriar National Forest area in the east/southeastern part of WV, and a little bit in the north central area. All of the state parks I'm familiar with are built up to some degree for easy access and day use by those that basically want a big city park experience, but they also have trails and areas where you can get away from other people and enjoy nature.
 
I really was surprised at the level of development. It was more like a large city park. With the swimming pool and water slides, conference center, amphitheater... it's easy to imagine thousands of people on the park property all at once.
 
LA,

Logan Area.

It doesn't suprise me you didn't see anybody on the trails. WV has one of the highest rates of obesity of any of the states.

If you can't get there on a 4wd vehicle or a 4 wheeler most people don't go.

I have neighbors who live within 75 yards of each other than drive ATV's to each others house rather than walking:rolleyes:

Which is good for us who prefer foot travel.
 
Thanks for the detailed trip reports. Some parks are just like that. I always take a look at the google earth images beforehand to get a quick view of development. Often gives you a pretty good idea as to what you are in for.
 
Hi Coaldigger. Bet I can guess what you do for a living. The company I work does consulting work, mostly for coal mines. I haven't been to any in Kentucky yet though.

It doesn't suprise me you didn't see anybody on the trails. WV has one of the highest rates of obesity of any of the states.
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I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah I've sort of noticed. And the smoking rate seems to be very high as well.

I always take a look at the google earth images beforehand to get a quick view of development.
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That's a good idea.

I'd also point out to anyone who's obsessive-compulsive about maps, you need to be a bit flexible in this park with your expectations of accuracy. :) I've seen two different versions of the hiking trail map, one is the park pamphlet and one is online, they don't agree with each other and neither is a perfect representation of what I found on the ground. No problem. The trails are marked very well, so there's no chance of actually getting lost. And with a bit of intuition it's easy to end up where you wish to be.

I really think the park offers some excellent opportunity for off-trail exploration, in the winter or early spring preferably. But bring your own topo maps. :)
 
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