In South Charleston, West Virginia, our intrepid walker returns to an area where he lived for 30 years for a pleasant stroll and an unexpected soapbox derby event.
Photo Above: Trails pass through a dense forest and a power line provides a viewpoint.
Photos Courtesy of Leonard M. and Laurie Adkins.
I’ve often thought of Little Creek Park in South Charleston, West Virginia, as an overlooked destination for outdoor recreation in the Mountain State. There are children’s playgrounds; picnic areas and shelters; a disc golf course; multiple baseball, softball and soccer fields; tennis and basketball courts; and, interestingly, a soap box derby track that is lighted at night and now more than 50 years old. All of this development is located on 100 acres, leaving the park’s other 200 acres in a deep woodlands coursed through by more than a dozen miles of hiking and biking trails.
Having spent the first three decades of my life in neighboring Charleston, I was reminded of what a treasure the park is when, visiting an old childhood friend, I was invited to watch his granddaughter compete in a soapbox derby event.
Setting off from the trailhead parking lot and connecting the Loop, Rocky Ridge (trail signs at intersections identify it as Rock Ridge), Boiling Springs and Battery Trails and a bit of the park’s paved road, Laurie and I created a 4-mile walk, first highlight of which was the Devil’s Tea Table. It’s a large rock formation towering high above, created during millions of years of erosion where the harder sandstone on top remains as the softer consolidated rock below wears away. We had been warned to watch for snakes living among the rock, but only saw two squirrels chasing each other around tree trunks.
We decided to take a short, steep side trail to cool our feet in Trace Fork, a serene-flowing tributary of the nearby Kanawha River. It was here that I came to appreciate the perceived sense of isolation the park has to offer. I knew that it was sandwiched in between a huge shopping complex along a major four-lane highway that was located just a few hundred feet above us and, on another side, bordered by a neighborhood. Yet, neither of these was visible from the trails we walked.
The park was established decades ago, so the forest has had a long time to grow toward maturity. On the Rocky Ridge Trail we walked in shadows cast by deep green leaves and giant beech trees. Mayapples with unusually large umbrella-like leaves lined long sections of the route. Laurie’s astute ear identified the songs of red-eyed vireos and a yellow-throated warbler. A power line right-of-way opened up the forest canopy, providing the one view we had on the walk.
The short, but steep Boiling Springs Trail (the only place we had to step aside for mountain bikers) brought us to the slightly undulating Battery Trail, which delivered us back to the park road and trailhead.
Oh, and my friend’s granddaughter? She won her soapbox derby race.
A Delightful Dinner Discovery
Before retiring to our room in South Charleston’s Holiday Inn (less than 5 miles from the trailhead), we walked barely more than one minute to Olive Tree Café for a pleasant meal of charcoal-roasted marinated Mediterranean shrimp, medallions of lamb fire-roasted Kabob style, and desserts of baklava cheesecake bananas Foster and beignets with four-berry compote.
When You Go
The Walk: A moderate 4-mile circuit (with no sustained steep sections) in the lushly-forested section of Little Creek Park in South Charleston, West Virginia.
Getting There: Take 1-64 Exit 55 in South Charleston to merge onto Kanawha Turnpike. Turn left onto Spring Hill Ave. in 1 mile; make another left onto Little Creek Park Road in an additional .5 mile and one more left onto Harold Bishop Drive, which is followed for .4 mile to trailhead parking.
More Information: A map of the trail system is on parks.cityofsouthcharleston.com/little-creek/hiking-trails.
Leonard has written 20 books on the outdoors and travel. Find out more at www.habitualhiker.com. He also writes Mountain Wildflowers, found on blueridgecountry.com.
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2025 issue.
