Cranberry Glades Botanical Area
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Visiting the Cranberry Glades in West Virginia
The Cranberry Glades Botanical Area is home to the largest area of bogs in West Virginia and is located inside the Monongahela National Forest. It covers 750 acres of land and has 150 miles of trails to hike. The boardwalk is wheelchair accessible, dog-friendly, and ½ mile long. This trail will take you through two of the 5 bogs in the area and offers a great chance to see some cool and unique plants and wildlife.
Bogs are a type of acidic wetlands full of peat, which is basically partially decayed plant material. Due to the special conditions found here, it is home to several species of unique plants like the carnivorous pitcher plant and sundew. This makes it a popular place to visit with plant lovers.
What to Expect
When you arrive, there is a parking lot at the trailhead along with a sign reminding hikers not to leave valuable items in their vehicles. Since this is a popular trail for tourists, it is unfortunately also a popular spot for thieves. There are forest rangers that drive around to help monitor activity in the park and keep an eye out for visitors.
They do recommend that you plan on spending about an hour walking the boardwalk in order to give you enough time to fully enjoy the plants and landscape views in the bogs. My friend Margaret and I ended up spending almost 2 hours while trying to find all the plants on the sign and enjoying the wildlife we were able to see.
Tip: Take the time before you plan your trip to find out the best time of year to visit if there is a particular plant that you will want to see.
Cranberry Mountain Nature Center
The Cranberry Mountain Nature Center is the closest visitor center to the Glades boardwalk. This is a great place to stop and get recommendations on the other trails you may want to hike in the National Forest. You can also stop here for directions as cell phone service can be spotty.
The center is open every day from May to October and on weekends from April to November. It is closed during the months between December and March. The Nature Center is also where you can book guided tours of the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area.
This visitor center houses an exhibit hall where you can learn more about local history and the forest ecosystems in the area. There are also some educational videos that you can watch to learn about the plants and animals in the forest. Outside the building is a nature trail, an overlook, and a native garden.
Lodging
Monongahela National Forest has several campgrounds and cabins in the area. The Cranberry Campground is a semi-primitive campground and is the closest to the Cranberry Glades boardwalk. Their sites are open seasonally and are first come first serve. They start at $5 a night.
Watoga State Park is home to two different campgrounds that start at $28 per night for non-electric campsites and $33 per night for electric campsites. They also have cabin rentals that start at $115 per night.
New River Gorge National Park offers primitive camping and Babcock State Park has electric sites that start at $22/night.
For non-campers, there are several hotels available nearby, use the link below to find the best deal.
Booking.comWalking the Boardwalk
The boardwalk is one of the more popular attractions in the Monongahela National Forest because of the accessibility of the trail and the cool plants that you can find. This walkway is wheelchair accessible and is a nice easy walk. Keep in mind that the boardwalk is made from wood though and can be slippery when wet. We also encountered a few loose boards that hadn’t been repaired yet, so I recommend that you keep an eye out so you don’t trip and fall.
At the beginning of the trail, there is a sign that will help you identify some of the common and unique plants in the bogs like cranberries, sundews, and pitcher plants. This sign also has pictures to help make identification easier. Take a picture so you have access to this information to help you identify the plants on your walk.
While you are enjoying your hike, please remember that this is a protected area, and the bogs are very fragile. A lot of the cool plants you will see come from seeds that were rooted in the area over 10,000 years ago.
To protect these special plants, make sure you always stay on the trail and practice “Leave No Trace”. This means that you will take everything you bring with you when you leave (don’t leave any trash or food items behind). AND equally important, don’t take anything with you (like the unique protected plants you will see on the trail).
To be able to spot as many of these plants as possible, take your time walking on the boardwalk. You may notice some areas in the bog of the trail that look a little trampled. If you follow the ‘trail’ with your eyes you will be able to spot some Purple Pitcher Plants. Don’t worry about trying to get close to getting the perfect picture. With a bit of patience, you will be able to find Pitcher Plants much closer to the boardwalk for some Instagram-worthy shots.
Nearby Attractions
The Cranberry Glades Boardwalk is centrally located between numerous attractions. Nature lovers will love visiting Beartown State Park which has another short boardwalk through the park.
Watoga State Park is a great place for hiking and water activities in West Virginia’s largest state park and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park is home to several trails as well as a small Civil War Museum, cemetery, and even some Confederate ghosts!
If you are heading west, then you might want to stop at the newest National Park, New River Gorge, or the neighboring Babcock State Park.
West Virginia is home to some wonderfully unique places. Stargazers will love to stop at Greenbank Observatory to see the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. Beckley Coal Exhibition Mine offers visitors an opportunity to ride a cart into a coal mine led by a real miner.
If you are interested in more underground adventures, consider visiting the Lost World Caverns or Organ Cave.
Why Should You Visit?
The Cranberry Glades Botanical Area is an amazingly unique landscape in the Monongahela National Forest. The Boardwalk offers a short wooden walkway through two of the bogs in the area giving you the opportunity to spot some special carnivorous plants along with several other unique plants and wildlife. This is the perfect stop that makes you feel like you entered another planet if you have been enjoying the mountains in West Virginia.
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