America's Newest National Park is the New River Gorge in West Virginia

[rthomas]

https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm

I'm thrilled that Congress has named the newest National Park in America and it is in West Virginia. If you have not visited the New River Gorge, you should. Beautiful landscapes, beautiful rafting and boating and that area in WV has some of the best recreational water in the US.

And it was funded as part of the second most recent COVID-19 relief bill.

3F6154FD-1DD8-B71B-0B7B8291EE0BCF92LoResProxy.jpg

[Tripping William]

That’s awesome. Beautiful country up there. Almost heaven.

[devildeac]

https://www.nps.gov/neri/index.htm

I'm thrilled that Congress has named the newest National Park in America and it is in West Virginia. If you have not visited the New River Gorge, you should. Beautiful landscapes, beautiful rafting and boating and that area in WV has some of the best recreational water in the US.

And it was funded as part of the second most recent COVID-19 relief bill.

3F6154FD-1DD8-B71B-0B7B8291EE0BCF92LoResProxy.jpg

That’s awesome. Beautiful country up there. Almost heaven.

+1

We visited for the first time in 2020 so we'll not add this to our bucket list of NP to visit; but, then again, maybe we'll have to "officially" visit sometime in the next year or two. Guessing we only have about 40 (or 50 or 60) left to visit.

[Jeffrey]

I’m very pleased to hear this great news!
Two of my childhood friends started a NRG rafting company after graduating from WVU. They enjoyed a few great NRG years before reality demanded their return. It’s a very special place.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

More National Parks is good! Are good? Yes! Both?!

[jv001]

I believe that picture is of the New River Gorge Bridge. I played golf at Pipe Stem Golf Club several years ago and we stopped at the bridge on the way up. That was one high bridge. Rafters on the New River looked like ants from the lookout. That area is indeed beautiful. I would love to go back one day.

[cakerace]

The United States National Park System protects 85 million acres of land, dived up into 424 different national park units. These parks range in size from 8.3 million-acre Wrangell – St. Elias National Park (AK) to 0.2 acre Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial (PA). Units are found in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Together they tell the story of the United States from geologic and prehistoric times up to our modern day.

There are 14 different designations used within the System, with National Monuments (85) and National Historical Parks (58) being the most numerous. The National Park Service holds each of these units in equal standing and funds each park according to their individual needs, regardless of their designation. Although there have always been exceptions, back in the day, the “National Park” designation was reserved for the “Crown Jewels” of the system: the Yellowstones, Yosemites, and Grand Canyons of the world.

However, in recent years there has been a trend for state tourism interests to lobby Congress to “upgrade” the names of their local parks to what they see as a more desirable and visitor attractive “National Park” label. Some would say their success in these efforts (we’re now up to 63 of the NPs), has watered down the special place the “National Park” name holds within the system. (Yes Cuyahoga Valley and Congaree Swamp, I’m looking at you…) Although St. Louis’s Gateway Arch is impressive (and one of my favorites), somehow it doesn’t fit the classic National Park criteria of “high mountains, tall trees, big sky.”

To be clear, the New River Gorge park is not new, and certainly not any better protected or funded than before its recent name change from National River to National Park and Preserve. The only difference is West Virginia tourism folks now have a new marketing tool.

Note: The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi, became the newest small- n, small-p national park (#424) on December 10, 2020, after the National Park Service acquired the home from Tougaloo College. I have currently visited 421 of the 424, but am on hold until post-COVID conditions make it easier for me to travel to Hawaii and northern California…

[pfrduke]

I have currently visited 421 of the 424, but am on hold until post-COVID conditions make it easier for me to travel to Hawaii and northern California…

Ok, I’ll bite - what 3 are you missing?

[bundabergdevil]

Ok, I’ll bite - what 3 are you missing?

Well, there are 5 in HI so not sure there but my guess is Lassen Volcanic in Northern California.

I’m doing okay. Been to 45ish of the 63 true national parks. When you throw in the other list of national designations though my percentage drops considerably.

Looking forward to visiting the newest entrant!

[aimo]

I have rafted the Lower New River a couple of times. Tons of fun and beautiful scenery. I recommend the book Far Appalachia by Noah Adams.

[bundabergdevil]

I have rafted the Lower New River a couple of times. Tons of fun and beautiful scenery. I recommend the book Far Appalachia by Noah Adams.

My Scottish father in law once made me watch Deliverance with him. Is that the same thing?

[aimo]

My Scottish father in law once made me watch Deliverance with him. Is that the same thing?

Nope, no banjos. Probably more of the trip Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty were hoping for.

[camion]

Just to be clear that's "New River Gorge" not "new River Gorge?"

[cakerace]

Ok, I’ll bite - what 3 are you missing?

I have visited all of America’s national parks on five separate occasions, first with a trip to the National Park of American Samoa in 2007, when the total number of units was only 390. Then five times my “life list” has become “out of date” as new parks have been added to the system. The three parks I currently lack (with the dates they were established):

Honouliuli National Historic Site, Hawaii (February 24, 2015)

Tule Lake National Monument, California (March 12, 2019)

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, District of Columbia (September 18, 2020).

Side Note: Five new national park units have been added under President Donald J. Trump. If I had had to make a guess as to what that number might be back in 2016, I would have missed it by five…

Side Note 2: I never visited Mar-a-Lago, which served a brief stint as a National Historic Site, established October 1972 and then abolished December 1980…

[Devilwin]

The New River flows north, which is odd, and is one of the oldest rivers in America. I often fish it for smallmouth bass near West Jefferson NC.

[jv001]

The New River flows north, which is odd, and is one of the oldest rivers in America. I often fish it for smallmouth bass near West Jefferson NC.

Ah, near another golf course I used to play, Jefferson Landing. The river looks to flow up hill.

[aimo]

The New River flows north, which is odd, and is one of the oldest rivers in America. I often fish it for smallmouth bass near West Jefferson NC.

Actually, it is THE oldest in America and second oldest in the world. Our mountains, the Appalachians, are among the oldest on Earth.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Actually, it is THE oldest in America and second oldest in the world. Our mountains, the Appalachians, are among the oldest on Earth.

If I remember correctly it is third oldest in the world

[Phredd3]

If I remember correctly it is third oldest in the world

Wikipedia says tied for third, behind the Finke (a river in central Australia that is intermittent, dependent on recent rainfall - so some sources don't count it) and the Meuse flowing from the French Alps down to the delta in The Netherlands. The New River is tied for third with the Susquehanna and the French Broad, all of which cut though Appalachia.

There, now nobody else has to look it up.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Wikipedia says tied for third, behind the Finke (a river in central Australia that is intermittent, dependent on recent rainfall - so some sources don't count it) and the Meuse flowing from the French Alps down to the delta in The Netherlands. The New River is tied for third with the Susquehanna and the French Broad, all of which cut though Appalachia.

There, now nobody else has to look it up.

French Broad River flows less than a mile from my house, so I'm really getting a kick...