Ray's Campground

Ray's Campground in Hico, West Virginia, puts guests at the center of the New River Gorge region — the mountainous Fayette County landscape in southern West Virginia where the New River has carved one of the oldest and most dramatic river gorges in the Appalachians over hundreds of millions of years, where world-class whitewater rafting runs beside world-class rock climbing terrain, and where the elevation, forest density, and scale of the gorge itself create an outdoor environment that earned the region National Park designation in 2020. For travelers seeking a flexible accommodation base across RV sites, tent camping, and cabin stays in this concentrated outdoor recreation environment, Ray's Campground provides comfortable infrastructure without removing guests from the gorge's natural character. RV sites, tent sites, and cozy cabins cover the full range of accommodation preferences within a campground positioned for the New River Gorge's dense activity calendar. The region's outdoor recreation economy runs year-round — river season through warm months, fall color hiking through October and November, and the Gauley Season festival in autumn when the Army Corps of Engineers' controlled releases from Summersville Dam turn the Gauley River into one of the most demanding and sought-after whitewater experiences in the eastern United States. The campground's welcoming atmosphere and proximity to the gorge make it a return destination for guests who come once for the rafting and come back for the climbing, or vice versa. The New River Gorge Bridge — at 876 feet, the longest single-arch steel span in the Western Hemisphere — is one of West Virginia's most recognizable landmarks and the centerpiece of Bridge Day every October, when the bridge is opened to pedestrians and BASE jumpers for one of the largest extreme sports festivals in the country. The views of the gorge from the Canyon Rim Visitor Center and the overlook at Long Point Trail's terminus are among the most dramatic in the eastern United States, revealing the depth and scale of the gorge in a panoramic format that photographs consistently underrepresent. The climbing at New River Gorge is nationally renowned — Endless Wall, the Meadow River Gorge, and dozens of additional crags within the national park support routes ranging from moderate sport climbs to serious trad objectives on the sandstone that draws climbers from across the eastern United States as a local analog to Yosemite's granite. The historical character of Thurmond, the former coal town accessible by road or rail within the park, provides a atmospheric exploration of the gorge's industrial past in structures that have been left largely as the coal economy departed them. The park's visitor center provides exceptional interpretive programming on the New River's geology, ecology, and human history. Ray's Campground is available through the West Virginia mountain camping season and beyond, with fall representing one of the gorge region's peak tourism windows — Bridge Day in October, the Gauley Season releases, and the hardwood foliage across the gorge's forested walls create a three-week window of sustained activity that fills campground inventory across the New River Gorge area. Reserve ahead for Bridge Day weekend and Gauley Season dates, and book early for summer holiday weekends when the whitewater rafting industry operates at full capacity.