Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Hiking from Visitor's Center Trail to the Historic Downtown

Event Date: April 7, 2019

I've purchased an annual pass to Harpers Ferry National Park for $30 because my intention is to visit the place as often as I would like. I live just about 30 minutes away from HP. I feel lucky for that.

The entrance fee to the Visitor Center is $15 per car, so paying $30 for a year is a good deal. I can also park in the historic downtown if I can find one using the pass. Rangers would check the parked cars and leave parking tickets for those who do not have the annual pass or parking permit.

Today, I decided to try the Visitor Center Trail. The ranger at the ticket booth told me that the beginning of the trail is close to the middle of the parking lot. I could not find it or I wasn't looking at the right place. I saw some people walking on the other side of the road so I followed them, knowing that it was not the recommended trail. I knew that walking at the side of the road was not the safest thing to do, but I kind of feel adventurous doing it.

Here are some of the pictures that I took from this hike. I enjoyed every moment of it and I plan to go back and hike on this trail again.

The Visitor's Center and the shuttle bus.

This was clearly marked as the trail to the farm. I was hoping this would connect to another trail to downtown, but I was wrong.

I continued with my hike. The weather was beautiful that day. I knew that this was not the right trail to take but I saw people on the road so I thought that I can always go back if the trail is going farther away from the road.

This is when I realized that I should get out of this trail and walked back on the side of the road.

You see the road ahead? At this point, I decided to go straight to that road, leaving the trail. There was a faint trail that leads to the road. I followed that instead, being careful on every step and on the lookout for snakes.

Then after walking for about 15 minutes, I saw people coming down from that hill behind me.

I wasn't alone anymore. There are groups of people ahead of me and behind me.

I decided to turn right and followed this group of people to Virginius Island. There's another bridge ahead connecting to downtown, which is just .2 miles away.