Green walls fall away to the river a long way below, and across the canyon spans the steel arch of the New River Gorge Bridge. Past Fayetteville the water goes white on the bends, and the rafts come through it in strings. With a motorhome the gorge becomes a base-and-drive week, the rig parked at one site around Fayetteville while the days go to the river, the overlooks, and the Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park, the park's best-known view.
Staying put is what makes it work for a family. You come off the river wet and done to your own shower and kitchen, the kids keep the same bunks all week, and nobody packs up to reach the next overlook. In fall the gorge walls turn gold and red, and that color, along with the rafting season, is when the campgrounds fill.
New River Gorge campgrounds at Fayetteville, Lansing, and Clifftop
Rifrafters puts you in Fayetteville itself, the small town the gorge's rafters and climbers run out of. Sites come with full hookups, 30 or 50-amp power, water, and sewer, and there's a dump station on the grounds. Book the site before the motorhome, because the site decides the class: standard sites take RVs of 25 feet or shorter, and the premium sites take a 40-foot RV.
Across the bridge at Lansing, ACE Adventure Resort is a whitewater outfitter with its own campground, the place to stay when the raft trip is the point of the week. Its RV sites have full hook-ups and take a motorhome, a fifth wheel, or a pop-up.
Babcock State Park's campground at Clifftop is the wooded state park option. The climb up to Clifftop is one to make before dark, so save it for a first night when you'll arrive with daylight left.
Bridge Day on the New River Gorge Bridge
One Saturday in mid-October, jumpers step off the span of the New River Gorge Bridge and their parachutes open one after another over the gorge. Bridge Day is West Virginia's largest single-day festival, and it lands right in the middle of fall color.
That weekend the festival and every RV trip into the gorge want the same rigs and the same sites. Rifrafters lists Bridge Day as a holiday weekend and recommends reservations, and the rental motorhomes around the gorge go at the same time, so lock both as soon as your dates are set. The state's other weekend like it is State Fair of West Virginia week at Fairlea in August, with livestock barns and a midway, and the Lewisburg RV page covers it.
Pipestem and Bluestone in the southern hills
South of the gorge, the view people stop for is at Pipestem Resort State Park, where the ridge drops away to a canyon overlook. Below it, Bluestone State Park runs along the shore of Bluestone Lake under the dam, a shoreline for slow afternoons with a fishing rod. Together they make a parked week split between a ridge and a lake.
Pipestem's campground has hookups available, plus heated bathhouses, laundry, and a camp store. At Bluestone the camping is at Meador Campground, with 7 electric-and-water sites, more with electric only, and a dump station, because Old Mill and East Shore are closed for dam construction as of October 2026. With that few water hookups, reserve a Meador site before the rig and call the park before you arrive.
West of here, the Hatfield-McCoy ATV trails and Kanawha State Forest are on a campervan page of their own.
Stonewall Jackson Lake
In the middle of the state, Stonewall Jackson Lake reaches back into the hills in long arms of water, and the campground at Stonewall Resort State Park runs along the shore with boats tied to the mooring posts. It's a lake week for a family that wants to fish and paddle from camp and come back to the rig for dinner. Every RV site has full hookups, with 50-amp power on 7 of them and 30-amp on the rest, so the air can run through a July week without anyone thinking about it.
North and east of the lake is the high country: the sandstone fins of Seneca Rocks, the open heath of Dolly Sods, Blackwater Falls, and the ski slopes of Canaan Valley, with Summersville Lake back toward the gorge. For two people, or a smaller rig that fits the gorge's standard sites, the West Virginia campervan page writes up those highland nights and its own run through the New River.