Guess Which State Is Perfect for a Fall Getaway. And It’s NOT in the Northeast

One look at The Mountain’s State’s rolling, plunging, riddled-with-secret-valleys terrain makes it obvious to any would-be waterfall-chaser that this is a state where cascades run rampant, wild– and most often, completely out of sight of any road.

And with so much of West Virginia’s dramatic terrain tucked down roads you might never think to turn down, the state’s newly launched West Virginia Waterfall Trail is particularly handy. It points the way to roadside falls like Kanawha Falls, which you can spot from Route 60, along with 28 other tumbling curtains of water that include some you’d probably never detour to on your own. Six of the waterfalls on the trail (among over 200 across the state) are located within New River Gorge National Park, which is especially scenic come autumn.

Related: 70,000 Acres and One of the Oldest Rivers in the World. This Is America’s Newest National Park

Ask any river rat about the East Coast rafting run that gives them the most cred for guiding and they’ll tell you it’s the Upper Gauley, a whitewater run revered throughout the entire rafting world. The Upper Gauley river is in peak season for adrenaline seekers for six weekends every fall (through October 16 in 2022), when a guaranteed dam release sends water flowing at 2,800 cubic feet per second and creates an advanced white water run with numerous class V rapids. Listen to your guide and prepare to work your core as you paddle, as this adventure is not for the faint of heart (nor for anyone under age 15). Mountains and cliffsides shadowed with flaming orange hues draw your eyes up from the water in the moments that you’re not busy paddling like crazy.

BASE jumpers, an acronym title that stands for four categories of jumps: Buildings, Antenna (radio masts), Spans (bridges), and Earth (cliffs), tend to do their thing in dizzying remote locales where the average man or woman on the street wouldn’t just casually happen by. After all, this is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. But every third Saturday in October, West Virginia holds the state’s largest single-day festival, the annual Bridge Day. One of the world’s longest single arch spans (and the second highest bridge in the country), the New River Gorge Bridge closes to vehicle traffic as pedestrians are invited to walk across it and watch as hundreds of BASE jumpers from around the world launch themselves 876 feet down into the ether (colorful full foliage framing it all).

Getting out in the Appalachian backcountry when the fall colors are at their boldest is a singular experience–and if you’re doing it with one of the guided ATV tours with Uncharted Society, you’re going to feel all that gorgeous country deep in your bones. All-day tours put you at the wheel of a rugged Can-Am ATV as you roll out from a private resort at the top of Indian Ridge Mountain near Ashland to explore the Pocahontas, Pinnacle, and Indian Ridge trails of southeastern West Virginia, deep in the heart of Hatfield-McCoy territory. You might stop for lunch or shopping in cute Appalachian towns like Bramwell, along the beautiful Bluestone River, too.

Related: 10 Things Nobody Tells You About West Virginia

With a fleet of vintage diesel and steam locomotives, Mountain Rail West Virginia offers some incredible wheelchair-accessible train outings into West Virginia’s remote reaches where the fall colors pop out at you like a Bob Ross painting at every bend in the rails. One of the most scenic routes is along the Durbin Greenbrier Valley Railroad aboard the Durbin Rocket, a coal-powered steam engine that looks like something out of a kid’s book. Trailing a vintage caboose and 1920s-era coaches, the locomotive pulls you down a 10.5-mile track along the Greenbrier River, with views of changing hues covering the Monongahela National Forest all around. Kids love watching the shoveling of coal into the locomotive from an open car right behind it as you steam along.

If any state knows how to do cabin life right, it’s the Mountain State. Get ready to see deer all over the place here, not to mention the occasional bear, without even leaving the comfort of your cabin’s deck. From the cute little treehouse cabins like Tuscany Tree House, with a private hot tub overlooking the woods, to luxury multi-bedroom vacation cabins at Country Road Cabins to the 26 vintage vacation cabins you can rent at pretty Pipestem Resort State Park, there’s a cabin with a wood-burning fireplace or fire pit calling your name for cozy fall fun.

Even if you don’t fancy yourself much of an angler, there’s a good chance you’ll snag something on the line when you head out fishing for native brook trout (be sure to buy a West Virginia fishing license) that inhabit 600 miles of rushing streams within the spectacular Monongahela National Forest, located in the eastern reaches of West Virginia, near the Virginia border. The leaves are usually still colorful and dangling with all their might to the trees here until early November, so spectacular scenery comes with the territory. You can join reasonably priced guided trout-fishing tours into the headwaters of the Greenbrier River with Knapps Creek Trout Lodge, which offers permitted guide services within the national forest, or try going it alone.