Hiking Blackwater Falls and Elakala Falls

West Virginia Travelog #13
Blackwater Falls State Park, WV - Mon, 18 Sep 2023. 3pm

At Blackwater Falls State Park today we did more than take selfies on the selfie swing. For sure we didn't drive 3.5 hours out from our hotel in Beckley just for that. No, we came out here for hiking. Specifically for waterfall hiking. And for that Blackwater Falls State Park does not disappoint. "Falls" is its middle name!



The eponymous Blackwater Falls is reached via a short trail. Or rather, the viewpoints for Blackwater Falls are reached via a short trail. The falls itself is thundering with water from the rains yesterday and today. It would be dangerous to get anywhere close to it at water level.



One interesting thing about the water in the Blackwater River is its amber color. At first I thought the streaks of brown ("amber" if you're being poetic) were from mud and silt churned up by the recent rains. A sign at the park informed us that this water has an amber color all the time. The color comes from the large amount of certain tannins in the water that come from trees like red spruce and eastern hemlock, and sphagnum moss, that grow abundantly in its watershed.

At 56' tall Blackwater Falls is not that high— by western US standards— but its width and flow are significant. It's not the only falls in the park, though. We hiked a smaller falls, as well: Elakala Falls.



The trail to Elakala Falls meanders through the forest near the park's lodge then crosses the stream on a bridge (visible in the photo) above the falls. These falls are maybe 20' high but very elegant. Reaching the spot below the falls required a bit of daring due to the slickness of the rocks and mud on this second rainy day in a row. I went down while Hawk stayed up. Potentially we could have scrambled even further down, as Elakala Creek plunges hundreds of feet into the canyon to the Blackwater River below, but the trails for that were even dicier. We didn't feel the need to risk that when there were yet other falls in the park to visit. Stay tuned for those!

Another Year of 2% Cards

It's been another year of 2%ers for me. No, not the 2% wealthiest people in the country; I wish! I'm talking about a pair of 2% cashback credit cards. I manage my credit card usage regularly through I spreadsheet I've built. I track not just my balance each statement and when it's due but also the rewards I'm earning. Once a year (per card) I run the numbers on rewards vs. costs to choose which cards stay and which go. Usually I share that here.

Citi DoubleCash

I've owned the CitiBank DoubleCash card for several years now. It comes with a fairly simple proposition: it pays 1% when you charge something plus another 1% when you pay it off. There's no annual fee. This makes it an easy card to recommend, BTW, for people who want to dip their toe in the waters of points-paying cards.

It turns out I haven't used this card much lately. I charged just under $350 total over the past 12 months. The main reason for that is that I was putting charges on other cards— including another 2% card detailed below. But for those ~$350 of charges I earned ~$7 cash back. I also earned another ~$7 in statement credits on periodic merchant offers that popped up on the card. Those offers pretty much doubled the value of the card. Without those offers I likely wouldn't have charged anything to this card.

Fidelity Rewards Visa

My other 2% card is the Fidelity Rewards Visa. I added this card 4 years ago after I already had the Citi DoubleCash card. At the time it had slightly better redemption terms; Fidelity would auto-deposit cashback to my Fidelity account every time the cashback balance passed $25. Citi made me wait 'til $50 for a check. Although Citi now offers more flexibility I continue to prefer the Fidelity card. I charged over $4,000 to this card in the past 12 months while hitting Citi for less than $350. Seriously, that's because it's a Visa so I can use it at Costco!

Stay or Go?

The Fidelity Visa is a keeper. In addition to paying a reliable, no-BS 2% cash back it has no annual fee. The Citi DC also has no fee, but I really only need one of these cards in my wallet— and I prefer the Fidelity Visa. I might cancel the Citi DC soon to free up space in my portfolio for another credit card. Of course, I said the same thing a year ago so there obviously isn't a rush.

Albert, Douglas, and Kennedy Falls

West Virginia Travelog #14
Douglas, WV - Mon, 18 Sep 2023. 5:15pm

We drove a pretty long way out here to visit Blackwater Falls State Park. It's over 3 hours each way. Hiking Blackwater Falls and Elakala Falls was great. The hikes were beautiful but they were short. To justify that much driving we'd really want to make a day out of it. Fortunately there are more waterfalls in or near the park. As I was browsing through AllTrails.com last night I spotted three more: Albert Falls, Douglas Falls, and Kennedy Falls. They're all on one trail near the remote small town of Douglas, WV.

The road to the trailhead turns to gravel the last few miles. Various comments on the AllTrails site warn of how dicey and rutted it is, and how maybe you'd be better off traversing it in a 4x4. As a skilled 4x4 driver I've learned to take such remarks with a grain of salt. A big grain. The gravel was actually well maintained, there were no ruts, and the very few potholes were shallow.



The only thing I thought was slightly dicey is this old bridge crossing a creek. And that's only because the wood forming the road bed is clearly quite old. BTW, if the iron on the sides of the bridge make it look like a railroad bridge, that's because it probably is a railroad bridge! This road is an old rail bed that was used between the late 1800s to early 1900s to connect these remote small towns up in the mountains, with their logging and mining, to mill towns at lower elevations.

At a certain point the narrow gravel road is gated off. We parked the car and continued traveling on foot.

We headed for the farthest of the three falls, Kennedy Falls, first. It was about a mile down from the trailhead. We found Kennedy... but didn't quite go to it. It's in an area where the rail-trail is quite high above the river below in the canyon. So, first of all, it took some route-finding and careful footwork to get down to it. Then the last 20' or so of descent to the river level were really rough. What was once a social trail is now pretty washed out. Other hikers have strung a rope to a tree to help climb up/down, but as damp as things are right now after 2 days of rain we decided not to chance it. We climbed back up to the rail trail and headed back toward the car.

Douglas Falls is actually right near the trailhead. We purposefully walked past to it try to find Kennedy first. Douglas Falls also requires careful footwork to get down from the main trail, but it's much less of a descent than Kennedy. And it's not washed out.



After following an obvious use trail to the foot of the falls we found that the use trail actually continues downriver a bit, providing a number of different views of the falls.



You notice the brownish cast of the water pouring over the falls.... This is from tannins, as explained by a sign in Blackwater Falls State Park.



Seeing Douglas Falls from so many different angles kind of made up for not really being able to see Kennedy Falls through the undergrowth. Soon it was time to leave Douglas Falls, though. We headed back to the car and backtracked up the road a bit to Albert Falls.



Albert Falls isn't huge. It's only 5-6 feet tall. But that's okay because it's easy to get to. I mean, once you're out here in the middle of nowhere it's easy to get to; it's just a few steps off the side of the gravel road. I stayed here a while before getting back into the car for the long drive home to Beckley.