Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center - Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center; Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

by Nancy Murin
November 23, 2007

Canaan Valley Resort State Park is located in West Virginia. It is approximately 120 miles from Washington and took about two and a half hours to get there. We traveled there the first weekend in November. It was a beautiful drive. The leaves in Pennsylvania and Maryland were still very colorful. However, once we hit West Virginia the leaves were gone. So, if you want to go when the foliage is at its best in Canaan Valley, make your reservations for mid October.

The scenery is wonderful, a nature lovers paradise. As we drove thru the park deer were out in the open and even walked over to our car. Note: you’re not supposed to feed the animals. When we went to our room there were two deer in front of our door greeting us.

The resort has 250 rooms, 23 cabins and cottages, and 10 meeting rooms. There is also a 34 site campground in the park. The rooms are average. The dining room is very nice with a romantic atmosphere. It has a great panoramic view of the park and surrounding mountains. The large fire place in the middle of the room gives a nice warm glow.

The buffet served in the dining room was really good and had a lot of food to choose from. We had the prime rib buffet and the breakfast buffet both were good. If you don’t want to eat in the dining room you can go to Pazzo’s Pizza & Diner. There you can get pizza, subs, burgers or salads, all without leaving the lodge. If you just want drinks and a small meal you can go to the Lounge. It’s a cozy area with a fire place, nice views and a big screen TV.

At Canaan Valley you can do everything or nothing. Here are just some of the activities:
· Championship golf Indoor / outdoor pools arts & crafts
· Skiing fishing hiking
· Kids playgrounds massage service paintball
· Whirl pool volleyball court Kidz Korner
· Geocaching climbing wall fitness center

With snow season quickly approaching let me tell you about the skiing. There are many different ski packages and specials you can call or check the web site to find out details and prices. The slopes looked really good. The top elevation is 4,280 feet, the vertical drop is 850 feet, and the longest run is 1 ¼ miles. There are 37 slopes and 11 night slopes. You have your choice of skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, airboarding, snow tubing and ice skating.

There is a good special running December thru April, a 2 day ski ticket, starting at $40.00 that can be used at both Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline Four Seasons Resort. This gives you a total of 76 trails to ski. The two resorts are minutes away from each other. For details on this special visit www.skithevalley.com.

Canaan Valley Resort always has something to do. Some special packages are the romance package, ultimate relaxation package, family ski packages, Christmas package and New Years Eve package.

There are different events happening most weekends for example; gourmet wine weekend in the mountains, making memories quilters work shop, women’s warrior retreat, scrapbooking workshop, Canaan Culinary University, A country Thanksgiving, fall foliage driving tours, and many more. One thing I want to make sure to point out, the people there are very helpful and friendly so make sure you call or log on to find out more information on any packages, events or pricing. Go to www.canaanresort.com or call 800-622-4121. It’s definitely worth the trip!