Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Beautiful, mountainous West Virginia has a proud culture of providing and preserving state park territories and recreational areas. Ripley, WV, located in Jackson County in the mid-western part of the state, boasts rural hospitality and a number of state-run parks within about an hour's drive. Many of these parks and wildlife management areas provide venues for hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping, as well as professional conference and camp services.
Located in Ripley, the Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area offers a full-scale conference center that provides venues for arts & crafts fairs, a full dinning hall, conference services and sports & recreations activities. Complete with a unique 18-hole disc golf course, the park offers basketball courts, biking trails, fishing, horseshoes, volleyball and a physical fitness trail. They also have rental campfire sites that can seat up to 400 people.
For fishing enthusiasts in and around Ripley, Rollins Lake Wildlife Management Area provides a 40 acre fishing hole that operates year-round. Located only three miles form town, it sports a boat launch ramp and allows electric motors only. Catch Large-mouth Bass, Crappies, Trout, Catfish and bluegills in this placid mountain park.
The Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area provides 11,772 acres of hardwood forest and rolling hills. Fishing, hunting, hiking and camping are all available in this park that comes complete with a 200 yard shooting range. A great park for bow hunters, Chief Cornstalk offers a large number of whitetail deer. The 5-acre lake is trout-stocked and game like turkey, fox, grouse and mink populate the gently rolling hills. The park also has 15 campsites complete with toilets.
For a bit of history, the Tu-Endie-Wei Point Pleasant Battle Monument State Park is located about 40 minutes west of Ripley in the West Virginia town of Point Pleasant. Though small (claiming only four acres) this park is a monument to the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant, where the Virginia militia fought the forces of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. This park operates a museum dedicated to furniture and antiques of the era and is pet-friendly.
About forty minutes south of Ripley, near the West Virginia capitol city of Charleston, lies the 9,300-acre Kanawha State Forest. This state-run park offers beautiful mountain venues for biking, hiking, camping and even cross-country skiing. Open year-round, the park offers special hikes and boasts a spectacular assortment of birds and wildflowers, including 19 species of the wood warbler, a bird popular with bird-watchers. Camping allows for both tents and campers of up to 26 feet.