Between mountain ranges and two national forests in West Virginia in the United States of America lies an Appalachian tourism frontier with serene, unspoiled countryside and some of the best rock climbing in the region.
Pendleton County’s remoteness serves as both a selling point and an impediment to several companies that have invested in tourism in recent years. It has helped the area stay beautiful but also off the beaten path for travellers.
Approaching from the east on U.S. Route 33, drivers pass through a canopy of trees several miles long in the George Washington National Forest and cross the state line atop the Shenandoah Mountain ridge. It’s along here that many travelers will find they’ve lost cell phone reception.
No light pollution
“Sometimes access isn’t all that it’s cut out to be,” said Gail Price, executive director of the county’s Chamber of Commerce. “We’re marketing to those that want to get away- quiet, no city lights. The stars here are unbelievable because there’s no light pollution.”
The county seat, Franklin, lies about an hour from the nearest interstate and a three-hour drive from Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Virginia; and Charleston, West Virginia, as well as about four hours from Pittsburgh.
“Access is a challenge. A bigger challenge is communicating in those marketplaces everything there is to do,” said Dave Huber, the director of the NROCKS Outdoor Center at the foot of a stunning twin crag of sandstone known as the Nelson Rocks.
Sometimes access isn’t all that it’s cut out to be. We’re marketing to those that want to get away- quiet, no city lights. The stars here are unbelievable because there’s no light pollution.
Rocky climb
Since buying Nelson Rocks in 2009, Virginia-based Endless Horizons has added a welcome center, hotel-style rooms and a canopy tour of 12 zip lines through tall trees. The centerpiece is the Via ferrata, a network of cables and steel rungs built in 2002 that take climbers hundreds of feet up rock faces.
A recent study commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission cites the Nelson Rocks and Seneca Rocks, a formation to the north in the Monongahela National Forest, as keys to the area’s “tremendous potential as a tourism destination.”
The Seneca Rocks Discovery Center has recorded between about 60,000 and 67,000 annual visitors each of the last five years with the exception of a dip during the government shutdown of 2013, said the center’s director Kevin Duncan. He said thousands more rock climbers visit without stopping at the center.
From an economic development standpoint, more restaurants, hotels and other businesses would help the county capitalize on the traffic. Tim Ezzell, a University of Tennessee scholar and one of the 2012 study’s authors, said Pendleton County isn’t alone among Appalachian communities in this regard.
“A lot of it goes back to capacity. Are they prepared for tourism? Do you have places to eat? Do people have hospitality training? It’s a chicken-egg kind of thing. It’s a really tough thing to do, especially when you don’t have a lot of capital to invest,” he said in an interview.
The study notes winding, steep roads into the county from east and west, along with limited Internet and cell phone access.
