Michigan to West Virginia

Cedar Point, Sandusky (OH)

September 2-4, 2023

These first two nights at Cedar Point was a bit of a splurge to celebrate having sold the house, downsized our life and actually started our next chapter with no fixed address. If you have never been to Cedar Point, or even Sandusky, we highly recommend it goes on your to-do list. Cedar Point is a fun park filled with more rollercoasters than you could poke a stick at, all of which would make the largest of rollercoasters in Australia look like a side attraction at the local fairgrounds. And to top it all off, the park is located on a peninsular that juts into Lake Erie (one of the five Great Lakes) and every ride in the park provides a stunning view of the lake and surrounding region.

The Lighthouse Point campground located on Cedar Point (just outside the park gate) is one of the most beautiful campgrounds you’ll find in the Midwest. The location on Lake Erie, combined with the enormous sites and super-nice facilities (our site had a gas grill, campfire, six seater table, rocking chairs, plus all the usual hookups), all on the doorstep to one of the country’s best fun parks. Put this one on your list – even if you don’t like rollercoasters!

As for the rollercoasters… this was not our first trip to Cedar Point (although it was our first time staying in the Lighthouse Point campground). Justin had twisted my arm into going here back in 2020, just as things were opening up after COVID. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. As mentioned above, the rollercoasters here are on a scale that is hard to describe as anything other than thrilling. Justin’s favorite was Steel Vengeance and I have trouble picking between The Gatekeeper and Valravn.

Another great thing about Cedar Point is that they have a first-come first-serve “Pet Check” where you can drop off your pet for daycare. It’s a relatively small fee (I think we paid $15 per dog for the day) although you do need to come and take them out to do their business yourself as the kennel attendants won’t handle the pet guests 🙂 But that was great for us to have lunch with the dogs, take them for a walk and then drop them back in for the evening for a few hours while we did more rollercoasters. Big shout-out to Cedar Point for having that available.

Hocking Hills State Park (OH)

September 4-7, 2023

Hocking Hills State Park is in the south east of Ohio – somewhere we had never been despite living next door in Michigan for seven years. We were surprised by the topography of this part of Ohio which is quite the contrast to the flat flat flat corn and bean fields of the northern half of the state. The rolling hills and tall forests that appear once you get south of Columbus are quite stunning and give you the first hint you may be about to leave the Midwest.

After getting slightly lost on our way into Hocking Hills and adding an unnecessary 45 minutes to our journey (pro tip – always download the directions before you leave in the morning or at least before you get out of mobile range!) we made it to Old Man’s Cave campground. The campground itself is nothing special but it does provide access to miles walking trails around this beautiful state park.

Ohio to Coopers Rock (WV)

September 7-10, 2023

From Hocking Hills we tracked eastward to the West Virginia boarder. West Virginia was recommended by a colleague as playing host to one of the last ‘true wilderness’ areas in the eastern states. We had never visited it before and it was also one of those states that we knew we would not get back to if we didn’t do it on this trip.

The town of Parkersburg greets visitors as they enter West Virginia on the US-50. An impressive bridge takes the highway over the Ohio River and onto Parkersburg township which sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers. As such, the town is a little prone to flooding and built an enormous twenty-foot wall around the downtown area in 1950.

Parkersburg was on our radar as a good spot to stop for lunch because we had heard the visitor center downtown apparently allows RVs to park in their lot free of charge. And they do! We rolled up and were greeted by a very helpful young woman who directed us to their very large parking lot around the back and gave us a handful of maps and recommendations of things to do.

After finding some lunch, walking the historic district and letting the cat have a rest in the trailer while we enjoyed the Parkersburg waterfront, we set off for Coopers Rock State Forest. This was the first time we got the feeling that pulling the trailer through West Virginia may be slightly more challenging than pulling it through the (flat as a pancake) Midwest! We joined the I-79 for the second half of the journey up to Coopers Rock and it is a very steep road for an interstate.

Coopers Rock State Forest is lovely. It’s a very tall forest in the mountains filled with maples and beeches. We stayed at the McCollum Campground in the state forest and we really loved it because the sites were so spread-out and the setting very picturesque. The only problem was backing into the site which was very difficult between the tree line and a broken drain running past the entrance to the site. Luckily Justin is a bit of a pro in the trailer-reversing stakes but even he was sweating a bit with this one. But we made it in!

This was the first camp where we got some serious rain. The heavens opened and a wall of water fell out of the sky. We were happy the trailer held its own and did not leak anywhere. The rain cleared up overnight and we got some good bushwalking in the next day. The centerpiece of the forest is Cooper’s Rock – a rock ledge with a great view over the mountains and down the valley. The Civilian Army Corp built a number of structures that allow people to access the rock safely.

A little note here about the State of West Virginia’s marketing team: they do a really good job! Emily receives marketing emails from most state parks (because she does all the bookings) and West Virginia really is a stand-out in promoting their natural assets. Their theme is “Almost Heaven” (here is the reference if you missed it) and they have these swings setup in their most ‘Instagramable’ sites all over the state. Pretty neat!

We spent Saturday doing some walking around Morgantown which was about twenty minutes from the state forest. It’s a college town playing host to West Virginia University and also has the distinction of having the oldest personal rapid transit system in the world. It was built as an experiment in the 1970s and is still operating; connecting the three West Virginia University campuses with the downtown area. Is was pretty cool!

Canaan Valley (WV)

September 10-15, 2023

The Canaan Valley in West Virginia lies to the south of the town of Thomas (very cute little town on the edge of Blackwater Falls State Park). We stayed at the Canaan Valley Resort Campground which was fabulous.

The campground itself has miles of trails that run all over the property and we must have lucked out on our timing here: (1) we felt like we had the place to ourselves; and (2) the fields in the valley were covered in yellow, white and purple wildflowers and it looked fabulous.

The Canaan Valley is also the home of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area – the one recommended by a colleague as one of the last true wilderness areas in the eastern half of the states. We spent a day exploring some of the trails in here and can definitely report it is a wilderness! There are also a LOT of rhododendrons growing in the forest here (they were up in Coopers Rock as well). They make the forest look like it was once someone’s garden but the owners left a long time ago 🙂

Blackwater Falls State Park and the township of Thomas were also a great day out. At the risk of sounding like a pathetic Australian coffee snob: In Thomas we found the first espresso we had come across since leaving Kalamazoo and it was like heaven in a cup (and much better than anything in Kalamazoo). it made us think the yuppies from Washington DC or somewhere probably come weekend-tripping out here. The town was actually full of antique and gift shops. We also found a fresh vegetable stall which provided the corn for dinner in the picture above.