★ Field-verified · Dave's ownNPSFree
Fayette County
Drive-up · National Park Service · Fayette County, WV · 37.85798, -81.09892
Inside a national park unit
Fayette County sits inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve — a national preserve run by the National Park Service.
Park rules apply, and they are stricter than dispersed camping: inside a National Park Service unit you camp in a designated campground or on a backcountry permit, not wherever you find a flat spot. Check the park before you go: nps.gov/neri ↗
Placed by point-in-polygon against the National Park Service’s own boundary layer (NPS Land Resources Division, 442 units, fetched 18 Sep 2026; this unit’s polygon edited 2013-12-18). Nothing about the price or the legal status on this page was changed by it.
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on National Park Service land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
A free campground in New River Gorge, in West Virginia. Nice vault toilet, picnic tables, fire rings. Clean. Well kept. Very nice. Enough space for a couple of vehicles per site. Highly recommend. A great basecamp for exploring or spending a few nights hunkered down. Poor cell service.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 17 February 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Fayette County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,151 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Fayette CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Fayette County · National Park Service · WV
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail2 mi
- WWater2 mi
- ShShower4 mi
- +Urgent care4 mi
- RxPharmacy4 mi
- HHardware4 mi
- FFuel5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- MMechanic5 mi
- EVEV fast charger5 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- AAir-up8 mi
- PPropane11 mi
- OOutfitter17 mi
- DDump54 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 5 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Fayette County
Access
Drive-up
Land
National Park Service
Elevation
1,151 ft
Ground slope
2.6% · flat
Nearest rail line
~0.8 mi · main line
Nearest highway
~5.0 mi · US Hwy 19
County
Fayette County, WV
Coordinates
37.85798, -81.09892
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Fayette County · National Park Service · WV (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureNew River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Piney Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townTerry · ~0.2 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.8 mi · main line
- Nearest highway~5.0 mi · US Hwy 19
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~2.2 mi
- FuelGoMart · ~5.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesGoMart · ~5.1 mi
- PharmacyPharmacy · ~6.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicAnchor Medical, LLC · ~4.6 mi
- HardwareBon Bon Hardware · ~4.4 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Fayette County · National Park Service · WV — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger5.4 mi straight-line W — Mt. Hope, WV - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 20 within 50 · 83 within 100 · 257 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS6.0 mi — FRIENDSHIP AUTO SHOWROOM FRONT, Beckley
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO6.0 mi — FRIENDSHIP AUTO SHOWROOM FRONT, Beckley
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)7.2 mi — Pikeview Manor, Beckley, WV · EV Connect · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 102509 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Fayette County · National Park Service · WV — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomArmy Camp Vault Toilet · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomGrandview Restroom #3 · ~2.2 mi SE · NPS
- RestroomGrandview Restroom #2 · ~2.2 mi SE · NPS
- RestroomGrandview Sandbar Vault Toilet #2 · ~2.4 mi E · NPS
Coming out here — Fayette County · National Park Service · WV
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps New River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 2.6% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Rail line mapped ~0.8 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- US Hwy 19 is mapped ~5.0 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Fayette County elsewhere
Other camps near Fayette County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Grandview Sandbar Campground~2.5 mi
- Thayer Campground~4.7 mi
- Glade Creek Campground~5.1 mi
- Stone Cliff Beach Campground~5.5 mi
Who holds the land at Fayette County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, manager on record: National Park Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Fayette County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Fayette County, WV). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record. | Land manager filled 2026-09-24: this point falls inside New River Gorge National Park and Preserve (National Preserves), a unit of the National Park Service, by point-in-polygon against the NPS Land Resources Division boundary layer. No other agency record names a manager for it.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 17 February 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Fayette County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Fayette County
Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Fire rules & restrictions →Reading your camp page →All field notes →