• What to know if you go

VICKI SMITH/AP (ENLARGE)

Jim Dill of Caldwell, Idaho, checks out the views from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center at the New River Gorge National River near Fayetteville, W.Va

JON C. HANCOCK/AP (ENLARGE)

The New River Gorge Bridge is the second-largest single span arch bridge.

BOB BIRD/AP (ENLARGE)

More than 300 BASE Jumpers take off from the bridge watched by a crowd of 200,000 on Bridge Day.

JEFF GENTNER/MBR (ENLARGE)

Jumpers float to earth after jumping from the New River Gorge Bridge during the 24th annual Bridge Day Festival in 2003.

Fayetteville, W.Va. — At the bottom of the 174 wooden steps from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center to the lookout on the New River Gorge, Jim Dill removes his woven straw hat, as if he has entered a holy place.

"This is breathtaking," he says softly, as wife Rita begins snapping photos. A few minutes later, he adds: "I can't look enough! I've got a sore neck, twisting my head one direction and then the other."

Dill of Caldwell, Idaho, is one of some 300,000 people who stop at the New River Gorge National River each year. Most are here just to get a glimpse of the world-famous New River Gorge Bridge and the canyon below. The steel-arch span, the second-longest in the world, is a sight in itself.

One of top 10 bridges

In May, Roads & Bridges magazine ranked it one of the top 10 bridges of all time, in the company of such icons as the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

But there is more to the New River Gorge than the steel that stretches over it. The river begins at a spring in Blowing Rock, N.C., and winds north for 320 miles until it intersects with the Gauley. For 53 miles in West Virginia, it is a national park encompassing 70,000 acres between Fayetteville and Hinton.

The park offers recreation in many forms, from rock climbing and biking to fishing, birding, swimming and hunting.

Twelve miles south of Fayetteville, travelers turn off U.S. 19 into the village of Glen Jean, then onto a narrow road that winds for seven miles through a community of tin-roofed homes. A few miles in, a mountain waterfall roars over a stream filled with boulders and lined with moss-covered trees.

Running parallel to the railroad is a one-lane path that emerges from the trees and crosses a narrow rusting bridge into Thurmond, a boomtown turned ghost town.

A few miles away is the Dun Glen recreational area, a little-known stretch of the New with a wide, sandy beach.

About 25 miles south of Glen Jean, just off I-64, County Road 9 winds for five miles between rolling pastures and well-kept homes.

Grandview overlook

At the end is Grandview, a well-manicured section of the park with playgrounds and pavilions.

The longest trail is three miles, and the walkway leading to the main overlook is level sandstone, somehow suggesting there is not much to see. But emerge from tree line, and it's clear there is.

The Grandview overlook is higher than the perch at Canyon Rim, some 1,400 feet above the New, with views that spread for miles and include the town of Quinnimont, where the first coal left the gorge in 1873.

The only sounds are the birds above and the rapids below.

It's only another 20 miles to the southernmost visitor center, Sandstone.

Few tourists make it this far south, and Sandstone spokesman David Caldwell says even many locals don't realize it's part of the park.

Just a few miles from here, the New drops over a rock shelf in a sheet of water some 1,500 feet wide. The Park Service has built picnic areas, hiking trails and a boardwalk, making it one of the safest and most accessible spots on the river.

"There's just as much nature here as in the other end of the park," Caldwell says, "but here, you go slow enough to see it."

IF YOU GO

About the park

New River Gorge National River: www.nps.gov/neri/home.htm, 304-465-0508. Bridge located on U.S. 19 near Fayetteville, W.Va. Free admission. Open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Where to stay

The park has camping but no lodge. For hotels, motels, inns and cabins in nearby towns, check out Fayetteville (www.visitfayettevillewv.com, 304-574-1500) or the New River Convention & Visitors Bureau (www.newrivercvb.com, 1-800-927-0263).

About Bridge Day

On Oct. 21, up to 200,000 spectators will stand on the New River Gorge Bridge and watch some 450 jumpers parachute from the single-arch span; www.bridgeday.info, www.officialbridgeday.com.