Brooks Island Overlook

Brooks Island Overlook is a WV-20 pull-off above a broad bend of the New River, with the mile-long wooded island below. It's a quick look, not a hike: take in the view from your vehicle or step up to the perimeter rock wall. Heading south from Sandstone Visitor Center, watch for the pull-off on your right about 5.2 miles along the road. The turn-in can be easy to miss on the winding route. There are no restrooms here.

The island and the river curling around it are the reason to stop. From the wall, try to keep both in the frame; the bend makes the long island easier to read against the surrounding gorge. A rail line follows the opposite bank, another detail to pick out in the valley.

Brooks Island is also the site of New River Gorge's first confirmed bald-eagle nest. A breeding pair settled in a large sycamore here in winter 2009–10; two eggs were laid in February, and the eaglets' first flight was seen in early June. The nest has been used by three different pairs since 2010. Look toward the island's far-right end for the large nest tree, but treat an eagle sighting as a bonus, not a promise.

The interpretive panel at the overlook describes this as a broad upper-gorge valley, with level land beside the river left as the water cut through the landscape. It also gives the view a much longer human story: people have used the valley for thousands of years, and the hunting grounds were shared and contested by Shawnee, Cherokee, and Iroquois peoples. It is a lot of history to take in from a five-minute pull-off, but the panel makes the landscape below feel less like empty scenery.