We Live In The Country!: West Virginia Road Trip! Part 4: Cass Scenic Railroad & The Ice Age Forest!

Cass Scenic Railroad

Sharp's Kissing Bridge

West Virginia is open for business and #vacation #travel fun! Come on down!

NOTE: Due to possible COVID-19 restrictions, which seem to be changing daily, before you travel or book Anything, CALL every place you want to go and make SURE they are open and operating! I have included phone numbers for almost every place we went to and enjoyed in this post. Although I have also included website hotlinks, do NOT rely on websites and online reservation sites- they are often not kept up to date! Every place we stayed at was spotlessly clean, and we had NO negative issues whatsoever! Dan and I are not kids- he is 73, and I am 61- and we had a fabulous West Virginia getaway!

Part 4: Cass Scenic Railroad, a Kissing Bridge, and the Ice Age Forest!
Our 9-night Road Trip loop thru West Virginia first took us from the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre in the southern mountains of Landgraff, in McDowell County, up to Romney, in Hampshire County, to ride the Potomac Eagle Dinner Train (see this post: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-come-on-down.html). Then we drove a little farther north to Berkeley Springs, in Morgan County, to "take the waters" at America's First Spa: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-2-taking.html We next drove south to Shinnston, in Harrison County,
to stay at Gillum House Bed-and-Breakfast, meet Punjab the Camel, and sip some great whiskey: https://southernwestvirginia.blogspot.com/2020/07/west-virginia-road-trip-part-3.html

Die-hard "railfans" (train-lovers, often called "foamers", LOL) that we obviously are, we went to Cass to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad: https://mountainrail.com/tour/CassScenicRailroad/ Tel: (304) 636-9477

The Cass Scenic Railroad is the same line built in 1901 to haul lumber down from the mountain to the mill in Cass, and the locomotives are the same, huge Shay locomotives used in Cass during that time! Many of the passenger cars are old logging flat cars that have been refurbished, as well, and the little red cabooses are downright adorbs! Cass is home to the world's largest fleet of geared Shay locomotives: five Shays, one Heisler, and one Climax happily reside there- it's railfan heaven! The legendary turn-of-the-century class C-80 Shay, #5, has been toiling up Cheat Mountain for nearly 115 years, making it one of the oldest engines in continuous service on its original line, and the oldest operable Shay in existence! Cass is another, total "Must-Do" for any railfan, and with its fabulous, loud train whistle and billowing steam smoke as it chugs up the mountain, tons of fun for kids of all ages!

We took a Cass steam train excursion in the summer of 2002 when we first came to West Virginia, and really enjoyed it; we bought our first piece of art in West Virginia- our wonderful "Little Bear" chainsaw sculpture- from a man who was carving tree trunks into magnificent statues with a chainsaw in his driveway right outside of Cass!

"Little Bear"

At that time, we took the Cass excursion up to Whittaker Station, where we enjoyed an outdoor picnic lunch and live music. This time we took the longer, 4.5 hour, 22 mile excursion all the way up to Bald Knob, and had a tasty "Hobo Lunch" of sandwiches on board. We spent about 1/2 hour at Bald Knob, and got to stretch our legs in the sunshine, take in the magnificent view, and shoot lots of cool photos of the fabulous Shay locomotive! Railfan guests of our inn did a "Castaway Caboose" overnight there years ago, and Dan and I both hope we can get back to do that! We arrived at the station an hour early, at 11am, so we had time to see the movie about the history of Cass and the diorama of the town in its hey-day, and visit the Museum, which adjoins their Last Run Restaurant and Company Store. After the excursion we returnedk to the store and bought West Virginia artisan salt from J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works: https://www.jqdsalt.com/, moonshine praline pecans, and locally-made jams, including a fab and zingy Jalapeno-Cherry Jam!

The Shay at the Station, ready to board!

Getting ready to board!

Chugging up the mountain!

Caboose!

Up the mountain!

Watering the engine...

The view!

Railfans Dan & Elisse!

Up the mountain!

View from Bald Knob

At Bald Knob

Maintenance at Bald Knob...

On the way down the mountain...

Oiling the engine...

Cass

Exhibit of Logger ID Tags

Cass Loggers

An Immigrant's Story...

A really cool ride on the rails!

Although Cass Scenic Railroad State Park now has restored Company Houses available for lodging: https://reservations.wvstateparks.com/products/lodging, they are quite large, with three bedrooms, and so we chose to stay for our two nights at the Morning Glory Inn in Slatyfork, a lovely B-&-B near the Snowshoe Ski Resort, as well as Cass: https://www.morninggloryinn.com/ Tel: (304) 572-5000. Morning Glory currently has a "no contact" check-in and check-out procedure in effect, and breakfast was provided for us in our guest room.

Morning Glory Inn

For dinner we drove about 20 minutes into Marlinton, where we found the Greenbrier Grille and Lodge: https://www.greenbriergrille.com/ , a nice restaurant with an outdoor deck overlooking the Greenbrier River where we could enjoy our dinner and a glass of wine, and throw corn down to feed the ducks and geese their dinner!

Geese & ducks at Greenbrier Grille

Feeding the geese & ducks at Greenbrier Grille

A cool Marlinton mural...

Leaving Slatyfork the next morning, we stopped at Sharp's Kissing Bridge on US 219, the red covered bridge across from the cool and fun Sharp's Country Store https://sharpscountrystore.com/Welcome/, a place we discovered years ago on another railfan road trip thru West Virginia to Elkins, and kissed again on the bridge! The red covered bridge across the Big Spring Fork of the Elk River was built in 2005 by Ken Gibson for his great uncle, Dave Sharp. Dave had wished to one day own a red covered bridge, as he remembered sneaking a kiss in such a bridge! Unfortunately the store wasn't open when we were there this time, but at least we got to kiss on the bridge! Sharp's Kissing Bridge is on Roadside America, a site that lists all sorts of cool things to see across the nation: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/

Sharp's Kissing Bridge

At Sharp's

After kissing on the Kissing Bridge!

"Falling Man Barn" at Sharp's- you can't miss it!

We drove the Highland Scenic Highway:
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/eastern/HighlandScenicHighway/index.shtml through this area, which is a world-famous and gorgeous "Must-do" drive in West Virginia. There is truly magnificent scenery to enjoy, hiking trails along the way, geological and vegetative wonders, trout streams, and wildflowers out the wazoo!

Highlands Scenic Highway

Cool info from
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/scenic-drive-in-west-virginia-highland-scenic-highway-ga.htm: "As an isolated area with abundant natural resources, the wilderness of the Highland Scenic Highway was an early haven for Americans seeking to avoid the horrors of the Civil War. Families who moved to the area at this time maintained their seclusion for decades. In the 1960s, the descendants of these families experienced a visit from people researching for the Smithsonian Institution. As the researchers studied and recorded the oral histories of the families in this area, they discovered that the language spoken was still the Elizabethan English of the early U.S. settlers. Tradition and folk tales of the area have been recorded and are a remnant of the mountain cultures of the East".
The center of West Virginia is also home to a unique "tundra" climate in some places, where high elevation, cold weather, and geology combined to create areas with plants and animals usually only found in the arctic, such as Red Spruce Trees, the Canada Mayflower, and the Snowshoe Hare, and we were able to see a bit of that on this trip: Black Mountain and Cranberry Glades, and the Ice Age Forest, a relic of the last Ice Age!