Seneca Trail · US-219 to Lewisburg

The Seneca Trail south, one way: from Marlinton the route follows US-219 through Hillsboro, where Pearl S. Buck was born, climbs Droop Mountain past the battlefield state park and its lookout tower, and rolls on through Renick and Frankford to finish in Lewisburg. It's 41 miles. Let local traffic by on the climbs, and expect traffic lights and tight parking in Lewisburg on festival weekends.

US-219 is the Seneca Trail, and this route rides its southern stretch from Marlinton to Lewisburg. In Hillsboro the road passes the house where the writer Pearl S. Buck was born, now a museum open on a seasonal schedule through the last weekend of October. A few miles on it climbs Droop Mountain, where Union troops under William Averell defeated John Echols's Confederates on November 6, 1863. The battlefield became one of the state's first parks in the late 1920s, and its log lookout tower, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, stands just off US-219.

From Droop Mountain the road eases down through Renick and Frankford to Lewisburg, incorporated in 1782 and the site of a Civil War battle on May 23, 1862. Its downtown is full of independent restaurants: in 2026 USA Today readers again named it the best small-town food scene in the country. It's a one-way ride of 41 miles. Let local traffic by on the climbs, and expect traffic lights and tight parking in Lewisburg.