Harpers Ferry

From Travel Info

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is a historic landmark, located in the Blue Ridge Mountain section of the Appalachian Mountain Range in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, making it an ideal excursion from its neighbouring cities or integrated into a state tour.

Just 65 miles northwest of Washington DC, (an hour’s drive from Washington Dulles International Airport), and 80 miles west of Baltimore, Maryland, visitors can visit exhibits and museums, or hike the trails and battlefields as well as visit neighbouring historical towns.

This picturesque village of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, clings to the rocky slopes of the promontory between the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers overlooking steep wooded river valleys. Many of its shops and houses have been restored and preserved in the conditions of the Civil War era.

Historical exhibits have been constructed in a number of the old buildings and houses have been converted to quaint restaurants, shops and galleries.

Besides sightseeing, Harpers Ferry National Historic Park offers hiking, bird watching, fishing and wildlife viewing. The great Appalachian Hiking Trail passes near the town. There are a number of bed and breakfast establishments in Harpers Ferry and a selection of hotels located in the nearby towns of Martinsburg and Shepherdstown and colonial Charles Town.

Harpers Ferry National Historic Park has many natural resources. Visitors can hike to Jefferson Rock to enjoy the view of the water gap where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. Seventy percent of the land in the park is covered with eastern deciduous forest, consisting of species such as chestnut, oak, tulip, poplar, red maple, spicebush and pawpaw.

There are over 170 bird species and more than 30 mammal species in the park. These include the bald eagle, white-tailed deer, red-tailed hawk and the southern flying squirrel.

The Appalachian Trail runs through Harpers Ferry. A short walk along the trail from the lower town to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal leads visitors from West Virginia to Maryland in just a few minutes. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) headquarters is located in Harpers Ferry and the town is one of only a few that the Appalachian Trail passes through.

Visitors can access the area from Amtrak's "Capitol Limited" which stops in Harpers Ferry, seven days a week as it travels between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Illinois.