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TUCKER -- Following Gov. Jim Justice's reopening plan, parks and recreation areas across the state -- including in Tucker County -- are adjusting their standard operating procedure to allow West Virginians to enjoy the outdoors safely.
On May 21, state park campgrounds were allowed to open for in-state residents only and that has progressed since then to encompass cabins and lodges as well.
On Wednesday, Justice allowed these parks to open their campgrounds and lodging services to out-of-state guests for a maximum of seven days.
"Obviously we are following all of the guidelines that the governor's office puts out," Blackwater Falls State Park official Matthew Baker told The Inter-Mountain. "At the moment, all of our overnight facilities are back and reopened. That's our cabins, campground and lodge. Our Smokehouse restaurant here in the lodge is back open for indoor dining as well."
Lake activities, such as boat rentals, are also opening again and staff is working to modify the annual nature center and naturalist programs that take place in the summer.
"Obviously we're doing our best to modify those to just encourage social distancing and putting them outside whenever possible," said Baker. "Of course, they're nature programs so that lends well to being outside. State parks in general do lend themselves well to the new social distancing standards."
"Parks are a great place to be during the times that we're dealing with," he said.
Blackwater Falls has also scheduled upcoming activities including live music and Irish road bowling.
"We have several events coming up to kind of celebrate West Virginia Day next weekend," Baker said. "On Friday night at 8 p.m. our Three Rivers Avian Center is doing their Birds of Prey program. Saturday night we're having music by a gentleman named Mick Souter at 8 p.m. Those are usually indoors and we're going to try to get those out on the lawn."
Irish road bowling will take place at 1:30 p.m. June 20.
"Like I said, parks during these times are great places for folks to come and to just relax because obviously there's a lot of stress going on in the world today." said Baker. "If you want to come out and get on a trail at Blackwater and be pretty much by yourself, that's easy to do."
Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center in Tucker County has also begun reopening to the public using the same guidelines.
"Restrooms will be deep-cleaned daily," reads their website. "High-traffic surfaces, including stall doors, toilet handles, sink handles and restroom doors will receive frequent disinfection throughout the day."
The Hickory Dining Room and Laurel Lounge at Canaan are open for indoor dining and many outdoor recreation areas have begun operating again.
Visitors can enjoy the clay and archery shooting range, equipment rentals, golfing, bike rentals and day-use areas such as hiking trails and fishing lakes.