Breaks interstate Park,

The park, located on the Virginia/Kentucky border, is one of only two Interstate Parks in the nation. The park encompasses 4,500 acres of greenwood lands and mountain scenery, including the "Grand Canyon of the South". History: The name "Breaks" is derived from the break in Pine Mountain created by the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River as it carved a 1,000 foot gorge on its way to the Ohio River. The Russell Fork River has carved the largest canyon east of the Mississippi. Its craggy untouched beauty reaches more than five miles long and 1,600 feet deep. Park features: olympic pool, a lake with paddleboats and fishing, hiking trails, picnic areas, camping areas, a visitor center, a gift shop, playground equipment, cabins, a lodge, motel rooms, a convention center,a restaurant and amphitheater. Numerous events scheduled.

Breaks Interstate Park is often called the Grand Canyon of the South due to its 5 mile long and 1/4 mile deep gorge formed by the raging Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River. Over 300,000 people visit this remote park each year.

Daniel Boone is credited with discovering this area in the late 1700s while exploring routes to the Midwest. Pioneers referred to these mountain passages as "breaks" and even today just a handful of these passages exist along the rugged Pine Mountain. This beautiful 4,600-acre park is shared by both Virginia and Kentucky and offers views into Tennessee. Elevations range from 870 feet at Russell Fork in the canyon to nearly 2,000 feet at Clinchfield Overlook. More than 60 species of trees may be identified here. Breaks Interstate offers cabins and camping with full hookups, deep cool fishing ponds, Class IV, V and VI rapids for kayaking and rafting, trout fishing, an Olympic size swimming pool, a motor lodge, miles of hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trails with panoramic overlooks, stables and horse rentals, and a visitors center featuring the historic coal mining and agricultural industry of the area. Rt. 80 leading into the park has been designated as Transamerican Bike Route 7.

Primitive camping is allowed off road and in the back country by permit only. George Washington & Jefferson National Forests is on the south side of Break Interstate Park and John W. Flannagan Dam and Reservoir is just a few minutes drive south.

The Beast Of The East

Raging War Between Water & Rock

by: Biologist, Climate Researcher & NWS Observer Wayne Browning

   *Each year a favorite article of whitewater enthusiasts, originally written by Wayne Browning during the late 1990s, is requested and is here reprinted in tribute to the grand majesty of Breaks Gorge, its world-class whitewater, and those who dare challenge its domain.  

   Hearts in the whitewater world skip a beat when October arrives, in anxious anticipation of the unleashing of The Beast!

   The relatively placid Russell Fork at Bartlick certainly seems like no beast, and it should not for this is not the Beast's home. The Beast resides farther downstream.

   Besides, The Beast is more than mere water!

   Those reading this now should understand that this is no play on words.  The Beast is no fictitious figment of imagination.  The Beast is real, very real.

   The roars of The Beast could be heard echoing along the jagged cliffs of Pine Mountain long before the first kayak ever entered its domain, and long before a dam was ever built to retain its life blood.  For you see, The Beast is ancient!

   As the Russell Fork reaches the base of Pine Mountain a nasty character emerges.

   A little farther downstream this nastiness surrenders to something beyond nasty as the river flows by the final placid refuge of Garden Hole into the deep chasm of Breaks Gorge, where stark boldness and subtle beauty mix as only God himself could allow.

   It is here, within the heart of Breaks Gorge, that war is declared between water and rock!

   It is here where the grinding, churning, fury of water battles against waves of conglomerate sandstones, standing bold without fear. 

   It is here from which comes forth a mighty roar as battle is raged amid forces of immense power, whose only measure is time. 

   It is here within such jagged chaos that no victory seems possible. 

   It is here that The Beast lives!

   A creature composed of water and rock in such intimate union that if either were absent The Beast would be not.

   Through the immense measure of time it is here, amid the tortured chasm of Breaks Gorge, that a victor emerged, as rock slowly surrendered to water and palisade walls rose to proclaim the victory. 

   For a mere man to test such a creature is beyond the reason of many as The Beast is relentless, even deadly.  

   But the attraction is strong, as such a mix of water and rock is rare in the whitewater world.  For it is here within the narrow depths of Breaks Gorge, as perhaps no where else in Eastern North America, that the clash of water and rock occurs with such violence but yields such beauty.  

   For those not challenging this menacing marriage of rock and water the fury seems less like a beast, and more like that of a master craftsman. 

   Draining more than 500 square miles of twisting ridges, hills, and high hollows ringed by lofty mountains the Russell Fork flows forth from a basin whose only outlet is Breaks Gorge. 

   Desiring only freedom the river pushes ahead, and like a master craftsman shapes a work of priceless majesty for all to marvel.

End of Article - Wayne Browning.

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