Sandstone Visitor Center

Sandstone Visitor Center is the National Park Service’s gateway for the southern end of New River Gorge, just north of I-64’s Exit 139 on Meadow Creek Road. It’s a useful first stop if you’re exploring this side of the park: use the watershed floor map and ask a ranger to help shape your day before you start driving. This is not Sandstone Falls. The falls are a separate drive through Hinton and along River Road, with no falls overlook or boardwalk at the center.

Interactive displays cover the New River watershed and its natural and cultural history. The big floor map helps make the watershed’s scale click, and a 12-minute film gives a quick overview. The bookstore carries park maps, nature and history books, and children’s titles. Ask at the ranger desk for help sorting out the longer drives between southern stops.

There are public flush restrooms, drinking water, and accessible and family restroom facilities; NPS also lists wheelchairs available. Outside, picnic tables and a shelter make this a practical place to pause with a packed lunch.

The center opened in 2003 on a former quarry and school site. Its design uses regional materials, geothermal heating and cooling, and planted basins that catch and filter runoff. That environmental story fits the exhibits, which explain how people have shaped the watershed and ways to lessen their impact.

The grounds are planted with native grasses and wildflowers, including milkweed. The site is a registered Monarch Waystation, providing milkweed, nectar and shelter for migrating butterflies. NPS has observed monarchs and caterpillars here, though a sighting is never guaranteed. It’s a quick wander around the grounds rather than a trail.