Concho Rim Overlook

From the deck, the river wraps around a wooded peninsula, with the railroad tracing its shore. Thurmond sits across the valley below. A passing train can add a moving detail, but it’s a bonus, not a scheduled attraction.

The overlook and Thurmond look close across the bend but use separate mountain-road approaches. The drive from Thurmond loops back to the highway and around, so don’t treat them as one walkable stop. ACE warns that GPS can be unreliable around its resort and describes steep roads with unpaved shoulders. Visitors report a large gravel lot and a short walk down a gravel drive to the deck. Portable toilets have also been reported, but their everyday availability isn’t clear.

The C&O railway reached Thurmond in 1873, the same year William Dabney Thurmond acquired 73 acres along the line. The town became a major coal and rail hub: at its peak, 15 passenger trains passed each day and the depot handled as many as 75,000 passengers a year. Mine closures and the railroad’s switch from steam to diesel in the 1950s ended much of the work that had sustained its rail yard.