Mountain Lakes

Mountain Lakes covers the central Allegheny country built around a cluster of Army Corps reservoirs — seven counties (Braxton, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Nicholas, Upshur, Webster) running from Sutton south to Summersville and east to Webster Springs. The terrain is hill-and-hollow forest broken up by the broad lakes that fill the river valleys behind the dams. Sutton anchors Braxton County beside Sutton Lake; Burnsville sits on Burnsville Lake to the southwest; Summersville Lake — the largest in the state — fills a deep gorge in Nicholas County; Buckhannon holds Upshur County and West Virginia Wesleyan College; Weston in Lewis County holds Stonewall Resort State Park on Stonewall Jackson Lake and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum tour; Webster Springs and the Holly River cover Webster County’s southeast end. Trips here are water-and-forest. Summersville draws the deep-water diving and bass fishing crowd; Stonewall Resort runs the lodge-and-golf itinerary; Sutton and Burnsville carry the quieter family lake traffic. The Mountain Lakes Trail loop ties most of them together for the scenic drive. Mid-May through October is the working season; everything quiets sharply once the lakes draw down.