Courtesy West Virginia Dept. of Commerce
Golf and skiing in season
The resort’s 18-hole, par 72 golf course, designed by Geoffrey Cornish, earned four stars from Golf Digest. Fairly level, it plays long but not difficult with groomed, open fairways.
From mid-April until November groups can have scrambles and tournaments, after which players can repair to the lounge for hot wings or a tent near the pro shop for a cookout.
Canaan Valley is the only West Virginia state park with a ski area; the valley gets an average of 150 inches of snow a year.
This winter, the ski area will reopen with several improvements: a new ski school and beginner slope, a 1,250-foot tubing run, and a wobble clay shooting range. There are 39 ski trails with a top elevation of 4,280 feet.
The resort’s Bear Paw ski lodge has a dramatic 6,000-square-foot room on its second floor, used for meetings in the off-season and for events in the winter after the slopes close at 4:30 p.m.
Getting There
Canaan Valley’s scenic allure does have a drawback: accessibility. The resort is two or three hours from major airports on mountain roads that twist and turn.
But that, too, will change. In 2014, Corridor H, one of the last remaining – and most difficult to build – sections of the 3,000-mile Appalachian Development Highway System, is slated to reach Davis.
The four-lane, limited access highway will cut 20 to 30 minutes off drive time from Washington and northern Virginia, said Bill Smith, executive director of the Tucker County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
And the view will still be spectacular … in all seasons.
