Living in the mountains presents all sorts of fun activities for the outdoor adventurist or thrill seeker. The Crane is a very steep uphill climb located on the South side of Bolt Mountain close to Wyoming County… matter of fact it may be just inside Wyoming County. At any rate it is difficult to actually catch riders on the Crane. In the short time a friend and I were here taking photos we were accosted by a guard from a mines in the area. He came from the direction we had not traveled. He asked us if we had seen any deer. It was that time of year where a number of people were out scouting for potential hunting spots. We informed him we were only taking photos. After telling us he had been out around the road looking for deer and apparently making sure we weren’t up to trouble, he left in the direction he came from… obviously he didn’t look hard enough for deer the first time.

In the last photo, this mudbog is located right off the main strip road on Bolt Mountain. I have a friend that had a truck stuck in it. The truck sat 3 1/2 feet off the ground with logging chains under the doors to assist entry into the vehicle. It was sporting waist high tires with a big block under the hood that used more gas just to start than most economy cars use in a week. Thats an exaggeration of course but it did use a lot of gas. At any rate it was sitting helpless in the middle of this mudhole. So if you feel like showing off to the girlfriend and go on a four wheeling adventure, better make sure you have the uh… equipment to get the job done.

UPDATE—- the crane is in Wyoming County. All I had to do was look at my topo map…. duh.

This post is entirely dedicated to Peachtree Falls. As I’ve said before, I love taking photos at the falls and here is the proof…

I just have to throw this one in here. This is another one of my favorites. The water is running right out of the side of the mountain and is a result of the earth being saturated by early Spring rains.

All three of these photos were taken from the Bolt Mountain Overlook last summer. In the first one you can see the v-shaped valley from the photo in my first pic post. All of the viewable area is Southern Raleigh County. The hollows directly below are Peachtree, Martins Creek, and Drews Creek. The overlook is another good place to take photos. It doesn’t really matter the time of year although I’m partial to Spring and Autumn. If you drive on up the road from here about a mile there is a wide spot on the left of the road with views into Wyoming County. Photos from there coming soon…

Lake Stephens is a 2300 acre county park. It has a 300 acre mountain lake surrounded by 2000 acres of hardwood forest. The park is open April 15 to October 15 offering recreational opportunities such as hiking, camping, fishing, boating, and swimming. The park is located nine miles west of Beckley on Rte3.

I’ve been able to take some really cool photos at Lake Stephens. These two are from the overlook and picnic area.

I couldn’t think of a better way to start than with a couple of my all time favorite photos. The first one is from the head of Martins Creek. Hidden in the v-shaped valley is Peachtree Road. I was hiking with my dog Sam when I took this photo. Gotta love West Virginia…

If you travel West on Rte 3 out of Glen Daniels towards Whitesville you will pass through a small town called Naoma. Naoma’s claim to fame… World Champion Marble Shooter Raymond Jarrell lives there. He runs the only service station left in the area. Anyway… just past his station there is a road that cuts off to the left called Peachtree Hollow Road. It runs with the Big Coal River upstream for about a mile before heading up into the hollows. After the road gets away from the river it follows Peachtree Creek to the head of the hollow. In the transition point where the road stops following the river and starts following the creek there is a very well hidden waterfalls. The falls is in the creek about a half mile upstream from Big Coal River. This is one of my favorite places to just go hang out for awhile taking photos and exploring the surrounding cliffs. I have never been to the falls and somebody else be there.

Welcome to Bolt Mountain Dot Com. My name is Denny. I am the webmaster for a site entitled West Virginia Outdoors. I started that site because I like to take photos of West Virginia and sometimes there’s an interesting story to go with the photo. With this site and a photo blog, my intentions are to phase out the West Virginia Outdoors site. Then again I may keep it for the links… only time will tell.

I also blog about West Virginia at http://wv-outdoors.blogspot.com