Ann Bailey Trail

The Ann Bailey Trail honors the legendary frontier scout and messenger whose exploits during the American Revolutionary War period made her a celebrated figure in Greenbrier Valley history, following a route that climbs above the Greenbrier River to a series of ridge overlooks surveying the same broad valley vistas that Ann Bailey herself would have crossed during her famous rides as an intelligence courier for the Continental forces at Fort Lee. The Greenbrier River below is visible from multiple points along the ridge section of the trail, its distinctive pale limestone gravel bars contrasting with the dark forest on both banks, and the agricultural river corridor spreading southward toward Lewisburg is a landscape little changed in fundamental character from the 18th century frontier. The trail follows a route used historically as a cattle drive path connecting the Greenbrier Valley settlements to higher summer pastures on the Allegheny Plateau, and the old drovers road character is still evident in the broad, deeply worn corridor that predates the park itself. Watoga's forest along this trail includes significant stands of northern red oak and tulip poplar in varying stages of succession, with older growth specimens concentrated in the coves and hollows where logging was less thorough. The ridge views encompass Droop Mountain to the north, the site of the only significant Civil War engagement fought entirely on West Virginia soil, adding further historical depth to the landscape perspective.