Two New River Gorge roads close this week: the RV fallback is Grandview Sandbar

By RVCamping.info Research Desk. This report was researched and edited with AI assistance; no named human review is claimed.

Two winter road closures in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve change more than the route to the river. Cunard Road closes November 9, 2026, and Glade Creek Road closes beyond Grandview Sandbar on November 10. The park expects the Cunard closure to continue into April 2027 and the Glade Creek closure through March.^[1]

For RV travelers, the useful distinction is between a campground name and an RV-usable campsite. Brooklyn is a walk-in camping area, so losing its road access does not remove a drive-in RV option. Glade Creek does have drive-in sites for small and medium RVs, and those sites become inaccessible. Grandview Sandbar remains reachable and has drive-in RV sites, but it is a primitive, first-come campground rather than a like-for-like substitute.^[2][3][4]

What closes, and what still works for an RV

The distinction matters because New River Gorge uses “small” and “medium” as route-planning categories. NPS defines small as under 25 feet total length and medium as under 31.5 feet. It does not recommend large RVs at any park campsite.^[3] Those are screening limits, not proof that every occupied or open site will fit a particular rig.

Grandview Sandbar is a fallback, not a replacement

Grandview Sandbar survives the road closure because the gate is farther down Glade Creek Road. That makes it the obvious same-corridor choice, but the campground has no reservations, hookups, potable water, electricity, flush toilets or dump station. NPS lists every park campground as first come, first served and warns that space can fill.^[3][4]

An RVer who had planned Glade Creek should therefore replace the whole setup, not just the pin on the map:

1. Arrive with drinking water and enough tank capacity for the stay.
2. Use only a marked drive-in site. A walk-in parking area is not overflow RV camping.^[4]
3. Keep a second campground outside the park in the plan. Grandview Sandbar may be open yet full.
4. Recheck the NPS closure page before turning onto Glade Creek Road. The agency says construction dates can change.^[1]

Accessibility also changes. NPS identifies accessible campsites at both Glade Creek and Grandview Sandbar, but the road closure removes access to Glade Creek's accessible campsite, picnic area, fishing area and the accessible lower portion of the trail. Grandview Sandbar remains the accessible campground choice on this road during the closure, although a traveler still needs to assess whether its primitive facilities meet the specific trip requirements.^[5]

The upper Glade Creek trail is not an RV workaround

The NPS closure notice says Glade Creek Trail remains open from its upper end.^[1] That does not create another RV camping route. The park's RV page limits RV camping to four drive-in campground areas, and the upper trail access is not one of them.^[3]

This is also a poor place to improvise after dark. New River Gorge's primitive campgrounds sit on gravel or dirt roads, away from stores and services. The practical winter plan is to choose the campground before descending from the highway, carry the needed water and power, and turn back if the legal drive-in sites are occupied.

The closure map sorts the trip in this order: Grandview Sandbar remains an RV possibility; Glade Creek does not; Brooklyn was never a drive-in RV campsite. That one distinction prevents a closed road from becoming an illegal overnight parking plan.

Sources

1. NPS: New River Gorge road and trail closures [1]
2. West Virginia Explorer: Two New River Gorge roads to close for winter [2]
3. NPS: Tips for RVs at New River Gorge [3]
4. NPS: Camping at New River Gorge [4]
5. NPS: Accessibility at New River Gorge [5]