This day was mostly a ride along Hwy 52 through the Appalachian coal mining towns of West Virginia. What I have seen on the first 6,000 miles of this trip has largely been a variation of things I have seen before. That changed today. The coal industry is suffering, and the small towns lining the river and railroad along Hwy 52 are trying to hang on. Riding through this area is a dramatic view of history, changing times and people with an uncertain future.
The first part of the day was a ride through the farmland of southwest Virginia.
Highway 52 through West Virginia is designated as the Coal Heritage Trail.
Running the length of the trail are road, river and rails.
The Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trail is the big tourist attraction in the area.
When coal was king…
Abandoned and dilapidated homes along side those still occupied.
I stayed at the Mountaineer Hotel in Williamson, WV. I had forgotten how much I liked Midwestern Hotels.
That is the way I remember it for as long as I have been going through there since the 70’s as a hippie. Got lots of attention back then with the longish hair.
W. Virginia: These photos looks like many of the film sets in the movie COLD MOUNTAIN – a very good movie about civil war times and some soldiers who went AWOL, finding places like this to hide to.
I have good feelings about your photos of agricultural landscapes, farmland, barns are a plus, but not so much about the mining. Nice photos.
Yes, a lot of what you photographed shows a depressed local economy alright. Still a lot of beauty shining through it thanks to mother nature and some of the better-off citizens with nice places. Very colonial, historical atmosphere. So great you are immersed in such a different environment from our west coast, almost like a foreign country. I can see why Leah likes it back there.
You’re right about the Blue Ridge Parkway being a PWT mecca, also another place I keep reading about in that general area called the Tail of the Dragon. Too bad you don’t have the time to ride their entire extent.