Fayette Station River Access

Fayette Station is a public New River access and lower-river take-out at the bottom of Fayette Station Road. Get out for the change in scale: the New River Gorge Bridge towers above the river, while the lower Tunney Hunsaker Bridge sits close to the water. Rapids and passing rafts make this an active river stop, not a quiet shoreline.

This is the river-level stop on the 8-mile, one-way Fayette Station Road tour, which descends through the gorge and passes beneath the New River Gorge Bridge three times. The road is narrow and winding. A low railroad bridge has a 12-foot clearance, and the National Park Service does not recommend large vehicles, RVs or trailers on the route. Download the road audio tour before you go; cell service is spotty. Anglers need a West Virginia fishing license.

From the river-side rocks, include the New River Gorge Bridge above and the smaller Tunney Hunsaker Bridge near the water. Leave some river and boulders in the frame so the bridge's height reads clearly. A passing raft adds motion when one comes through.

Townsend's Ferry crossed here from early colonial times through the Civil War and afterward. The C&O Railroad arrived in 1873, and Fayette Station Bridge replaced the ferry in 1888. Fayette and South Fayette grew as coal towns; mining continued along the road into the mid-1990s. The New River Gorge Bridge opened in 1977, and the rebuilt river crossing reopened in 1998 as the Tunney Hunsaker Bridge. A historical marker by the parking area tells the ferry story.