Few resorts at twice the price can match the variety of fun at Canaan Valley, a mountain playground on 6,000 acres.
Try hiking on 18 miles of trails, swimming, tennis, fishing, and an 18-hole golf course. Bring the kids for hayrides, campfires, and guided nature walks. Come winter you can ski, snowboard, or snow tube downhill, glide cross-country, snowshoe, ice-skate, and use the indoor pool, sauna, and fitness center.
Lodge rooms are basic motel-style, but they are comfortable and come with a TV. Pine-paneled cabins have a fireplace and kitchen.
The food may not be memorable in the Aspen dining room, but the mountain views are super, including some peaks over 4,000 feet. There’s a snack bar and a lounge with big-screen TV.
Bottom line: A state park resort that gives you a lot for the money.
Canaan Valley Resort State Park, 800-622-4121; canaanresort.com. Rooms $109 to $219 a night for two; efficiencies, $168 to $204; cabins, $798 (two bedrooms) to $1,008 (four bedrooms) a week.
This article first appeared in the April 2005 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
