Skip to content
Cathedral State Park, Aurora, WV

Photo: Chris M Morris, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Sports & Outdoors

Cathedral State Park

A West Virginia forest preserve known for its ancient hemlock trees and old-growth growth.

12 Cathedral Park Drive, Aurora, WV 26705 · Aurora, WV

About Cathedral State Park

This park protects one of the largest stands of old-growth eastern hemlock in West Virginia. Its ancient trees are the main draw, and the park holds national natural landmark status. Visitors can also find a wide range of native trees, ferns, and wildflowers across its compact acreage near Aurora.

  • #old-growth forest
  • #hemlock
  • #national natural landmark
  • #forest
  • #West Virginia state park

What's around here?

The closest stops to Cathedral State Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

  • Sightseeing

    Fairfax Stone State Park

    No admission fee

    A small West Virginia state park built around a colonial-era boundary marker that helped settle a land dispute.

    9.5 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Outdoor Adventure

    Blackwater Falls State Park

    No admission fee

    Walk a boardwalk down to amber-colored Blackwater Falls, then hike to canyon overlooks like Lindy Point in the Allegheny Mountains.

    15 mi awayMore like this

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Outdoor Adventure

    Canaan Valley Resort State Park

    Check prices

    Ski or snow-tube in winter and golf, hike or ride the scenic chairlift in summer at a state-run mountain resort in the highest valley east of the Mississippi.

    21 mi awayMore like this

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Outdoor Adventure

    Dolly Sods Wilderness

    No admission fee

    Hike a high, windswept plateau of heath barrens, sphagnum bogs and flagged red spruce in the Monongahela National Forest.

    25 mi awayMore like this

  • Sports & Outdoors

    Tygart Lake State Park

    No admission fee

    Lakeside state park in the Allegheny foothills offering boating, camping, and cabin stays.

    26 mi awayMore like this

  • Attractions
    Family Favorite

    Smoke Hole Caverns

    Check prices

    Take a guided tour of under an hour past stalactites, helictites and a long ribbon stalactite in a West Virginia show cave, then pan for gems.

    28 mi awaySwitch it up: Attractions

Near Cathedral State Park

More of the same kind

Keep exploring