LANSING, W.Va. — Visitors of the ever-increasingly popular 2.4 mile Endless Wall Trail in Fayette County will now get to enjoy an expanded parking lot by over half of what it used to be.
Governor Jim Justice joined Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby and officials with West Virginia Division of Highways Monday to welcome the additional 70 parking spaces at Endless Wall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The project was a partnership with the state Department of Tourism and the WVDOH, and Ruby said it has been several years in the making.
Ruby said while it has been great to see an influx of visitors coming to hike on the trail following the re-designation of the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and the now global attention it has been garnering over the years since, the limited parking was creating a hazard to those driving on the road in the area around Endless Wall, and something had to be done.
“Anyone who has been out hiking Endless Wall in the past couple of years is familiar with the problems that we’ve had, we had a very small parking lot down here and for years it has been over-crowded, and with the national park designation that got even worse, so highways responded really quickly about two years ago when we said there was a safety issue,” Ruby said.
She said the DOH first came out and widened the portion of Lansing-Edmond Road the trail sits off of, making it safe for the public to create an additional 30 parking spots. Then, just recently, DOH crews created the additional 70 more spots from a completely dense forest adjacent to the trail.
Ruby said it’s all about collaboration that gets major projects like this done.
“So, it’s been great to see how the state can work the National Park Service to really take growth and figure out how we responsibly deal with it, and how do we make sure we’re providing an excellent visitor experience.
Gov. Justice said to see how the New River Gorge area transformed into a tourism capitol of the world in his lifetime is amazing, and the Endless Wall Trail marks a small facet in that transformation. 
“I was at Marshall University when the founders of the first folks came up with the idea that we’re going to take a raft and we’re going to go down the New River, and with all of that being said, on the way over here, it is unbelievable what is happening right here in this area right here in West Virginia right now,” Justice said.
According to the Department of Tourism, the New River Gorge area sees about 2 million visitors a year.