The Unique Hike In West Virginia That Leads You To Plane Wreckage From 1973

You never know what surprises you'll find hiding on the trail in the Mountain State - and one of the last things you'd likely expect to find while hiking in West Virginia is the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in the middle of the night back in October of 1973. But it's there, and the remains of the Spuce Knob plane crash are largely intact considering it has been there for the better part of half a century.

The breathtaking West Virginia peak known as Spruce Knob towers over the Mountain State at a whopping 4,863 feet above sea level.

(In case you didn't grow up in WV, it's also the highest point in the state.) As you can imagine, there are many trails up to the peak of Spruce Knob. One of them, the Lumberjack Trail, is a loop trail of nearly 12 miles. The picturesque trail is best used between April and early December since it's known to get quite a bit of snow.

At approximately three miles into the trail, there is a somber plane crash site from a horrific accident that killed two people; one of them was from West Virginia, the other from Maryland.

They were flying on company business for a Michigan-based firm in late October in a plane similar to the 1967 PA-23 Piper Apache shown above. It's known that just after midnight they reported ice had begun to form on their wings and they had requested an altitude adjustment from 9,000 feet to 7,000 feet.

It was the last time the small plane would be heard from.

After five exhausting days and a multi-state search for the missing plane, a hiker in the woods near Spruce Knob discovered the sad wreckage and the remains of the two passengers who perished in this terrifying crash.

Today, a sadness still permeates the landscape at the crash site.

Most of the wreckage is still here, still colorful, and largely intact in spite of the decades that have passed since the night of this dreadful crash in the Monongahela Forest near Spruce Knob. If you'd like to see more of this somber plane crash site located alongside this trail, then check out this short video from YouTube user HikingUpward:

Monongahela National Forest is also a stunning place to visit outside of these tragic ruins, we definitely recommend spending some more time there exploring.

Unfortunately, the Mountain State is no stranger to natural disasters or horrific accidents like the Spruce Knob plane crash. You can learn more by looking at our list of the worst disasters in West Virginia.