Pennington Passages

On our latest trip to West Virginia, we visited the Cranberry Glades Wilderness. The Glades are located in the Monongahela National Forest in the eastern part of the Mountain State. In this post, we explore the Botanical Area and the Highland Scenic Highway overlooking the Glades.

Cranberry Glades Botanical Area

We started our visit with a stop to the Botanical Area boardwalk. We enjoyed the open very green peat bog area with mountain views. As we followed the boardwalk into the trees, we noticed the forest was alive with birds. Without binoculars, we missed an opportunity to use our novice bird identification skills :/ guess that proves we are novices!

We meandered along boardwalk noting the lush landscape before us. We learned that the Glades were probably formed after the last Ice Age some ten thousand years ago.

We appreciated all the diverse plant life living in the peat bog. We marveled at the depth of the peat layer – up to ten feet deep along the boardwalk area.

We came upon an interesting looking plant (below) – perhaps a flesh-eating plant? We attempted to make a more positive identification from the signage along the boardwalk. Not sure but it looked like a young insect-eating purple pitcher plant.

The boardwalk was our close up look at The Glades. Next, we ventured out to the scenic highway to get a view from above.

Highland Scenic Highway – Route 150

We hopped on the Highland Scenic Highway – Route 150. We started our drive from the western portion of the highway overlooking the Cranberry Wilderness. Our first stop was the Cranberry Glades Overlook Trail. The trail was lush and green with plenty of mushrooms.

The short trail lead us to an overlook of the Cranberry Wilderness.

It was hard to see the bog area from the overlook due to the amount of bushes and trees. Even so, the mountain views were amazing.

From the overlook, we continued to head north on the scenic highway. The next overlook provided a view of the red spruce renewal efforts taking place in the forest.

Red Spruce Renewal

Next, we pulled off at the Little Laurel Overlook to take in yet another beautiful view. Across the road, we noted the Tea Creek Mountain hiking area and started planning for a future adventure.

Little Laurel Overlook

Our final stop was the Red Lick Scenic Overlook. We took in the views for one last time before heading down to Marlinton on route 219. It was time for lunch.

Red Lick Scenic Overlook

The Dirt Bean Cafe and Bike Shop

The town of Marlinton was a short drive from the scenic highway. We decided to check out the Dirt Bean. We noticed all the bikes parked out front. We wondered how many folks had ridden in from the nearby Greenbrier River Trail.

We sat outside on the back deck and enjoyed two generous salads with slices of freshly baked sourdough bread – yum! It was the perfect end to our visit of the Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area.

For more WV travel, see our post Almost Heaven: Canaan Valley WV.