Smoke Hole Canyon — traditionally called The Smoke Holes and later simply Smoke Hole — is a rugged 20 miles (32 km) long gorge carved by the South Branch Potomac River in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, United States. The area is rather isolated and remote with parts accessible only by boat or on foot.
View of Smoke Hole Canyon from atop Cave Mountain. Visible are the South Branch Potomac River and the Big Bend (bottom), as well as Castle Rock and North Fork Gap (distance).
The Cave Mountain Anticline exposed as a cliff-face in Cave Mountain Gap
Live bluegrass music and dancing at Shreves Country Store
Palestine (St. George's) Church (built c. 1850)
South Branch Potomac River
The South Branch Potomac River has its headwaters in northwestern Highland County, Virginia, near Hightown along the eastern edge of the Allegheny Front. After a river distance of 139 miles (224 km), the mouth lies east of Green Spring, Hampshire County, West Virginia, where it meets the North Branch Potomac River to form the Potomac.
The South Branch near South Branch Depot, West Virginia
Oblique air photo of the confluence of the North and South Branches near Green Spring, West Virginia. Facing southwest. River Mountain is on the right, and Town Hill is on the left.
Canoers at Hanging Rocks on the South Branch in the 1890s
The North Fork South Branch below Seneca Rocks in Pendleton County, West Virginia
