ROANOKE, W.Va. — Sometimes a good road-trip starts by looking at a map.
In the weeks after Christmas, I was at a friend’s house admiring their new Basecamp Printing West Virginia state map that listed all of the State Parks and counting up the ones that we have been to and the ones we have somehow missed. (For the record, the Dave Trippin’ crew has now been to 27 out of 37).
Already thinking about “the ones that got away,” when a week later we were taking the oldest offspring back to that university city of burning couches and sledding street bonfires. I was scouring a map of I-79 looking for some fun places to hike and hang out.
It was then I noticed that since we are typically doing our best Kurt Busch imitation on I-79 trying to bust a move to get to the mountains to ski or to Morgantown or beyond, we had never been to any of those three Mountain lakes: Burnsville, Sutton, or Stonewall Jackson. All are just a stone’s skip off of that race-car ribbon of mountain highway.
That changed last weekend.
With French Creek Freddie predicting another six more weeks of winter, and Toril’s birthday weekend at hand, we decided to hibernate in style for the weekend and zip over a couple hours to check out the beautiful lake-side Stonewall Resort (www.stonewallresort).
Named by MSN in summer of 2018 as the best lake in West Virginia on a list called “The Best Lakes in All 50 States,” the 2,630-acre Stonewall Jackson Lake may look more like the world’s largest ice skating rink in February, but thankfully the incredibly picturesque locale has a fun, pet and family-friendly resort that provides a relaxing and quick getaway.
Not-so-fresh off of a weekend where I had camped out two nights in the cold and crawled in wild caves with the scouts over in Kentucky, I was more than ready to sign up for the Stonewall’s to-do list: “Swim. Relax. Dine. Rest. Hike. Spa. Shop. Celebrate.”
Having been to about 75 different state parks in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, I would say off the bat that we found Stonewall Resort, whose theme is “Close to Nature, Far From Ordinary,” a cut above what you typically think of a “resort” state park. Since this can typically just mean a state park has a lodge, there is the possibly it’s sporting carpet about as old as The Rolling Stones.
Walk into the high-ceiling timber post-and-beam Adirondack-style lodge lobby and you know you’re somewhere else. The Resort underwent a $3 million renovation project in 2018 that included completely upgraded guest rooms and lodge internal spaces, a cottage refresh, and a makeover for the resort lounge, among other initiatives.
While the golf course, its 100-person party houseboat “Little Sorrel” and stable of Segways are dormant, Stonewall, a unique state park property managed by Benchmark Hospitality International, is still sporting a lot of off-season amenities such as a large indoor and heated outdoor (yes even open in winter) pool, spa, restaurants, and a lively weekend-heavy events schedule to entice folks to visit during the winter.
And we loved the fact that the resort has pet-friendly accommodations.
With our dog Milo ready for some hiking after being cooped up during the Polar Vortex, we breezed over last Saturday afternoon and were able to log in more than five scenic, but snow-sloppy and muddy miles on the park’s 16 mile trail system.
We did a loop hike of the Lakeside Nature Trail over to the somewhat unique Cairns Trail, which runs through the hills and along many of the somewhat mysterious cairns (or stone stacks) that number more than 200 in the park. And then back again on the Lakeside trail (also open to mountain bikers).
After a refreshing dip in the indoor and outdoor (heated pool), we headed over to the Stonewall Ballroom where they have been hosting a new foodie series called Winter Wanderlust featuring themed weekend events pairing great food with live music, murder mysteries and special craft beer, bourbon and wine tastings.
Julie Petit, director of sales and marketing for the resort, said they tried out a few food and beverage pairings last year (including a moonshine pairing dinner). Those were so successful they’ve expanded it into a series that includes a several events a month – including a regular bourbon tasting (in their library on Friday, Feb. 15.) New craft beer dinners are on the menu including one on Saturday, Feb. 23, in which they will unveil four Parkersburg Brewing Company Beers brewed exclusively for Stonewall Resort.
The Wanderlust kicked off with a beer, bourbon and BBQ event and they had beers from 16 different WV breweries,” Petit said. “The chef is amazing here and he is very creative and loves to infuse the Appalachian flavors and spirit into the food. He is having fun with that.”
While I was a bit saddened to not be there on beer-reveal weekend, we did get in on a weekend that seemed right on time.
We were there for a spirited night of wine and jazz, with music organized by Eric Spelsburg, the Weston-based president of the West Virginia Jazz Society.
Spelsburg said after a night at Dizzy’s in New York, he got the idea to start the society and regularly schedule jazz events in the Mountain State, pulling in seasoned musicians from both in state and from the East Coast to come play special concerts.
“There wasn’t one, so I started one to exist when we needed to exist,” Spelsburg said. “10 years and we have been doing it little by little… Why should you have to go to D.C. just to see a jazz band in a pub environment? I just bring them here.”
Sitting at a table with strangers, we soon found ourselves – as you often do in West Virginia – immediately welcomed into a sweet circle of new friends, and soon after, we were in the midst of a raucous mini 1970s college class reunion.
Three Fairmont State University buddies who were on campus in the late 1970s – Thom Haller, who splits time between Washington, D.C., and Weston, and Debbie Myers, who now lives in Martinsburg, W.Va. – brought their significant others out for a night to celebrate music, dancing and laughs with their college friend, Karen Greene, who happens to be a smokin’ sax player living in Atlanta.
Greene, who teamed up with another old school-mate, Bob Workman, the drummer to form the band that night called Decon Blue. They tore through some pop-rocked FM jazz fusion by the likes of Steely Dan, the Yellowjackets and Dave Brubeck with their band.
“I love it, it’s just so great to come back,” Greene said taking a break. “We all had a lot of fun growing up together. It feels great to come home and see your friends. It’s like a reunion that you get paid to work on. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Haller entertained the table with wild his tales of working his way through college in summers at the now famous tourist attraction, the Trans-Allegheny Asylum, and his memories of buzzing his 1964 Corvair along the windy country roads near here before the dam was built in the late 1980s.
At our table, Dale Garrison, who brought his wife Dawn to the dinner and dance, said this was their second time at the resort in recent years.
“We’ve lived here since 1988 and this is only our second time here,” said Garrison who lives near another best-kept-secret state park, Audra. “We were just talking about it on the way over here how you always forget to appreciate what’s in your own backyard.”
Petit, who joined new general manager Andre D’Amour at the resort two years ago from Texas, said as a private-company running the state park owned resort they have a lot of freedom to try a lot of things and put some unique spins on events.
“I came up here for a temporary basis from Texas and I just fell in love with how beautiful the state is and warm and friendly the people are. It doesn’t get much better than this – this resort is amazing. It is a big resort and a great lake,” Petit said. “It surprises me more and more how people between Pittsburgh and Charleston don’t know we exist. We’re trying to change that.”
Filled to the brim after a wonderful meal and wine, and, of course, those to die-for North Central WV cannolis and worn out by a full afternoon of hiking, we left Petit and our table full of disco-era divas to the dance floor, calling it a night. We wanted to be ready for another day to explore on Sunday.
Filled with that peaceful and easy Sunday morning feelings, we left Stonewall Resort and took to the country roads, on a slow roll down West Virginia 19 south to Sutton. We soaked in another rare, glorious sunny day, seeing such area sights such as the Walkersville Covered Bridge, the gorgeous Wildcat Falls (Glady Creek) near Ireland, the Falls Mill Falls overlook at Burnsville Lake, and the small but fascinating Flatwoods Monster Museum in Sutton at the Braxton County visitors center.
Arriving home in Huntington, we checked Stonewall Resort, our West Virginia State Park No. 27, off the list feeling blessed to have gotten so close to nature and so far from ordinary in one marvelous weekend.
Original Post here: https://www.herald-dispatch.com/_zapp/dave-trippin-hits-mountain-lakes-area-for-winter-getaway/article_1c162d13-563a-5aca-b317-db40cf9931a1.html
