Meadow & Gauley Rivers Access Trail

Per Dept of Interior the Meadow and Gauley river trails are permanently closed. Violaters face fines, arrests and/or impoundment. see photo....

From Nallen (the town on the southeast end of the trail) it is getting overgrown for several miles, so expect pin-striping. It opens up occasionally. After crossing under the Rt 19 bridge, it starts to get rough. About 7.7 miles in, there are back to back obstacles and very narrow trails. The second is a very narrow section where you need to maneuver through an S-shape of large and sharp boulders. My Tacoma barely fit and I don’t have a bed. We had to turn around because we couldn’t get my buddies Forester though. I will be going back because it is gorgeous.

Be prepared for some pinstripes; first portion of the trail has decent brush on both sides of the trail. Was looking for some dispersed camping for two vehicles / one trailer - both with roof top tents. After the second old railroad bridge crossing (4 miles in) we finally found a great site with everything you would want. Set up for the night and planned to go out the next day - however, at 4.25 miles in encountered a deep water hole (vehicle not equipped for deep water crossings, and didn’t want to risk anything. We ended up staying two nights at the site and just enjoyed what nature gave us.

Ran into some guys on sxs shortly past the 19 bridge coming from the Nallen side that said road was impassable with a truck. They barely made it through with sxs. Was told they pulled a jeep off its side the week before. Recommend I turn around and and take the easy way out.. I wasn’t trying to mess around and find out.

To the bridge, heading East, is an easy green despite some bad puddles and pinstriping. That being said after the bridge the trail deteriorated fast, some shelf type roads with narrow width and two boulders I could not navigate a gladiator around. Lifted 2 door wrangler or side by side would not have issue it seemed. Had to reverse out of a real bad spot. If you’re in a normal or larger vehicle turn around at the highway 19 bridge and head back it gets rough

coming from Nile there is a very tight obstacle with rocks you had to zig zag through. very very tight in a small SUV. then going through first tunnel there was large rocks and probably two feet tall and used ever skid I had. leaving the tunnel there was a rock pile again and I got high centered and used every skid I had again. after that area, smooth selling, but watch the spikes on the wood bridge.

With it being a rail bed don’t recommend bringing a wide vehicle due to brush wiping

Went about 10 miles on a very narrow trail. One washout which passable. Then we came to 3 boulders placed on the trail The bronco just fit. 1/2 inch clearance on both sides and it was a wiggle path. Hard right then wiggle hard left wiggle and hard right. No scratches. Then we ran into two more blockages like this. I had to use my rear wheel lock for a very hard right turn. Worked great. The 3rd blockage was a little better. Then we came to the tunnel. Blocked by big rocks. These were ok hit the rock guards pretty good but we made it. Then at the end they dropped a concrete barrier😮 right in the middle no going around so we went over with the right wheels. These broncos are a beast❤️ then the rock pile was pretty easy. So now I see the trail is closed on here. This was my first time doing this and made it through with no scratch’s. Why don’t they close the trail with a gate or sign? All in all I had a blast😎

We cleared multiple down trees after local storms but there is a fall boulder that makes the last portion of the trail unpassable in a normal sized vehicle. SxS could get through as well as bikes and hiking. The trail is very narrow with a large drop-off on the river side.

Extremely overgrown. Pin stripes will happen.