Amtrak's Surprisingly Small Stop

New River Gorge by Jon Dawson

The entire population of Thurmond, W.Va., could fit into one Superliner bedroom suite–with room to spare. That’s because the quiet stop along the Cardinal route, which runs between Chicago and New York City, only has five citizens. By comparison, a bedroom suite holds six people.

Thurmond, WVBut passengers who come to Thurmond aren’t visiting to meet with  the few remaining locals. No, they’re there to go white water rafting.

Despite the town’s dwindling population (it’s highest peak in the last 100 years was in 1930 when 462 people lived there), it’s become a booming destination for thrill seekers.

The town is actually part of the white water rafting fave, the New River Gorge National River, and was even recently featured in Travel + Leisure.

In fact, if you’re looking for a place where you can go canoeing, hiking (50 miles of trails!), rock climbing 1,400 established rock climbs), fishing, hunting, bird watching, camping, picnicking, biking, and enjoy the solitude of the natural world, this is the perfect place!