Canaan Loop

Dusty easy road at first, an easy 3. Further down road gets rough, I'd say 5. I didn't have a spotter but was still tricky.

Only the west entrance is open. Had a lot of fun on this trail. No issues even for a full size truck either. So this trail is more like a higher 4 maybe even an easy 5. There’s some great obstacles in the beginning. However after that you are moving at idle speed going over lots of rocks and puddles and collecting LOTS of pinstripes. We only did the first 1/3 of the trail since it would be out and back and it’s a pretty punishing ride. There’s no mud to speak of. The mud pit in the beginning is no big deal it has a hard bottom.

The north end is open. The road has been repaired. This is a very rough trail. You will need spotter at times. The south end has a closed gate so be prepared to turn around.

Per the park office, the trail is set to reopen May 29, 2026.

The the trail is completely shut down now

You can still enter the trail from the Blackwater park side. Mostly passable but would be easier coming from the other side. Very wet conditions but very fun!

Still closed

The Canaan Loop currently has some work being done on it, you can't drive it through if you listen to the signs (which some people obviously aren't). As of 1/11, you can drive in about 2 miles from the Canaan Heights side (and get to a handful of campsites and trails), and approximately 5 miles in from the Blackwater Falls side (All of the "fun" stuff is open, and you can get to 2 or 3 campsites from that direction). From either direction, there are very good turnarounds when you reach the "road closed" signs.

Trail closed 4.5 miles in from Canaan Valley end. Construction vehicles present

As the last report said I completely missed the first signs as they were off the the side with the rest of their equipment so I thought it was open again... it was not. Trail had about 2 inches of snow, light traffic. Absolutely stunning trail, first half was a gravel road, second half was much more technical than I expected alot of deep water holes. Couldn't tell how deep they were until my truck broke the ice. Got some new pinstripes as the trail is narrow. There are a few spots that you are going to want some extra ground clearance my tacoma on 33s did great, but between the snow and ice and the slick rock definitely a more advanced trail in the snow. Wouldn't recommend for a first timer but after a few trails under your belt would be a nice step towards intermediate trail ride when the snow melts. Lastly, once I got to the other end I saw the road closed sign, I wish they had it marked better on the starting end. I thought they opened it because of the holiday weekend.

Missed the first sign at the entrance and came across a barrier and grading crew, stopped and spoke with them and they confirmed it is closed while they regrade and install fresh gravel. No ETA for completion was given.

The blackwater falls side is so deteriorated now, deep consecutive cross axle mud pits, rocky inclines and declines with almost 2 feet tall boulders in some areas. Decent tires and ground clearance, skid plates and at least a rear locker are needed if you don’t want any drama. Very narrow in some sections so pinstripes are expected. This part of the trail deserves a solid 4 close to 5. Don’t be mislead by the 3/10 difficulty rating. It’s not the same 3/10 as Peter’s Mill Run.

We started at the Cannan Heights side which was very easy, just a gravel/dirt forest road. But as we got on the canyon side/Blackwater Falls side, it became very rough, rutted out and deteriorated. It was muddy and wet when we went and there was some relatively deep mud holes. I would not recommend this at all for a AWD regular clearance vehicle. We had to use our winch at one part to make it up the rock facing. Other then that it was a great trail with some awesome views, great camping also.

We breezed right through this in our Outback Wilderness but I want to be perfectly clear that AWD vehicles without modifications should NOT attempt this. We have a little over an extra inch of lift from the 2" wilderness trim, larger tires, a winch, rock sliders, and full skids which made this a fun challenge instead of a stressful experience. There are now several extremely deep mud holes, some of them filled with water and others are drier like hood-deep peanut butter ruts. There is one very deep drier one in particular toward the Blackwater Falls side that will gatekeep less capable vehicles due to the mud. There is another toward the Table Rock trail side that had water just below my front emblem, which is about 22" if I had to estimate. 11" of clearance was plenty in our case. I would say our poor approach angle in the Outback was our biggest weakness and was close to being an issue in some spots but we had no problems.