Cacapon State Park

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Cacapon Mountain runs north/south and divides Morgan County into the heavily forested and mountainous western segment and the more populous and settled east. The mountain ends at Panorama Overlook in the north and includes the county's highest elevation, 2320 feet, at the southern end near the Hampshire County line.

In 1933, the state of West Virginia created Cacapon State Park from 6000 acres of land on the eastern slope of Cacapon Mountain. Park boundaries extend along the top ridge more than 12 miles to Prospect Rock where George Washington and countless other 18th and 19th century visitors often rode on horseback. A fire road along this ridge provides a rare and ideal flat surface for hiking. The road begins at a spectacular overlook above the Batt Pavilion which provides a panoramic view of the entire Sleepy Creek Mountain to the east. During the summer, vehicles can drive to the overlook.

Trails were cleared and cabins built in the park by the Civilian Conservation Corps program. In the 1960s, an 18-hole, 72-par championship golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and is rated one of the best public courses in the region. One of the most distinctive sights is the stone chimney on the putting green which is all that remains from the land's original farmhouse. The Old Inn at Cacapon was the first overnight lodge in the West Virginia park system.

Please click here or on the image above for a .pdf of this interpretive sign on this section of the trail.

Today, the park is a favorite resort in the state system with a lodge, cabins, family restaurant, a lake with a sand beach available for fishing and boating as well as swimming. Miles of blazed trails along the mountain follow game trails that were trod by Native American and colonial hunters. A comprehensive naturalist program and horseback riding round out Cacapon State Park's universe. (Insider tip -- the word is pronounced Ca-cay-pun.)

Other historical sites or attractions along the trail:

Berkeley Castle. On Rt. 9 west, overlooking the park and town is Berkeley Castle. It was built from local stone in 1885 by Colonel Samuel Suit as a summer cottage in fashionable Bath for his young bride, Rosa Pelham. After nearly 40 years open to the public for daily house tours, Berkeley Castle was purchased at auction in September 2000. The current owner has not reopened the property to the public.

The Ice House art and community center is home of the award-winning Morgan Arts Council. Located along Warm Springs Run on the corner of Independence and Mercer streets, it is the location of year 'round concerts, community theater, classes and the Ice House cooperative community gallery. Berkeley Springs is rated one of America's 100 best small art towns and many of its artists are on display in the Ice House during the Apple Butter Festival. Both the annual Spa Feast in January and Uniquely West Virginia wine and food festival in April are held here.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church at the southern intersection of Rt 9 and 522 was built by hand from 1881-6 by Henry Harrison Hunter, local inventor and superintendent of the park and springs. Hunter handcrafted the unusual wood roof shingles on the church. He also designed Victorian period covered bathhouses built in the park and used through the 1940s when they were demolished and replaced with the current outdoor swimming pool.

Ridge Fish Hatchery. Part of the West Virginia State system for breeding trout to stock area streams. The Fish Hatchery is approximately 15 miles south of Berkeley Springs on Rt. 522.

Researched and written by Jeanne Mozier © 2000

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