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National Park Service · New River Gorge National Park and Preserve · WV

War Ridge/Backus Mountain Campground

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Information
Burnwood Campground and Restroom Closure The Burnwood group campground will be closed from October 5 through mid November due to a construction project to replace water lines. During that time restroom facilities will be closed at the Burnwood Trailhead.
Information
Bridge Day closures On Saturday, October 17, U.S. Route 19 will close at 7 a.m. on Saturday and remain closed until 5 p.m. that afternoon. Alternate route is via US Routes 60 and 16 (about a 45-minute detour). The parking lot at Canyon Rim Visitor Center will…
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Rend Trail Closed through December 2027 The Rend Trail is closed for trail Improvements that will include a new parking area, restroom, and a small picnic area overlooking Arbuckle Creek at the Minden trailhead, structural improvements to five historic railroad trestles along…
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Kaymoor Miners Trail Closure From June 15 through November 19 the upper part of the Kaymoor Miners Trail (from Kaymoor Top down to the mine site at the junction with the Kaymoor Trail) will be closed Monday through Thursday due to a trail rehab project. The trail is…
Alerts: National Park Service alerts API · Oct 17, 2026
First come, first servedNo reservation, and none to be had: all 8 sites go to whoever pulls in first.

This is how it should work.

Get directionsWhat it costs, and the rules
Right now
OpenThe agency lists it open
A night
FreeNo camping fee
Sites
88 of them walk-up
Season
Year-roundOpen year-round
Photos · NPS photo
2,530 ftElevation
2,820 ftWater · an unnamed pond
8.3 miNE of Stanaford, WV
8Walk-up sites
0%Tree cover
Open year-roundToday

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there

In the agency’s own words

This is the only campground in the park that is not along the river. It is located on a ridgetop near Backus Mountain. There are 8 drive-in sites for tents, RVs, or campers. Only small (less than 25 feet) RVs or campers are recommended. Camp only at designated sites. RV, camper, or car camping in non-designated sites or any parking area is strictly prohibited.

Source: National Park Service API · Aug 24, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
None. Pack out what you bring in
Drinking water
None, bring your own
Source: National Park Service and agency records

Around the campground

On the water
River
Night sky · 62nd darkest of 69 in WV
Bortle 4
Source: Stated in the agency description
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Nothing to book, just show up

One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first, and it costs nothing at all. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.

recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.

BookingNo reservationsNothing to book, and no release date to wait forthe agency’s record
A nightFreeNo camping feethe agency’s fee record
A weekendNothingDerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
Runs itNational Park Servicethe agency’s record
Directions
Every line of the receipt · 4

What you actually pay

The sign priceNational Park Service
Camping feeFree
War Ridge Campground$0
The booking feerecreation.gov
Nothing. This campground takes no bookings, so there’s no reservation fee to pay.
What a stay costs
A night, and a whole weekendDerivedNothing

Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s own record says there’s no camping fee, and no booking fee, because this campground takes no reservations. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.

How we know this receipt · 5
Sign price: Derived by CAMPANAC from the National Park Service fee record: a stated per-night amount only · Sep 7, 2026
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: National Park Service API · Aug 24, 2026

record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Coordinate37.84526, -80.98518
The phone3044650508

Where it is

Source: National Park Service API · Aug 24, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight40°Rain Showers98% rain
Saturday47°Rain Showers Likely then Mostly Cloudy67% rain
Saturday Night28°Widespread Frost
Sunday57°Widespread Frost then Sunny

NWS forecast for Prince, WV

Source: National Weather Service, RLX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 44°F, day 64°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°20°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: BECKLEY RALEIGH CO AP, WV (USW00003872), 9 miles away and at about the same elevation
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Carol Miller, official portrait

War Ridge/Backus Mountain Campground is in West Virginia’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Carol Miller (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it open right now.
Season: National Park Service API · Aug 24, 2026
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.61 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 69 rated federal campgrounds in West Virginia · Sep 8, 2026
Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model
Cell signal: the Park Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Prince, WV, 3.6 mi E (a census designated place). Straight line.
Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026