Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Where the rivers meet.

Two rivers, three states and two centuries of American history in one walkable town. An independent guide, fact-checked and kept current.

Photo: Daniel Hemmerich

Start here

Harpers Ferry (often written Harper's Ferry) sits at the eastern tip of West Virginia, at the spot where the Shenandoah River runs into the Potomac and cuts through the Blue Ridge. Most of the historic Lower Town belongs to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and the town of Harpers Ferry and neighboring Bolivar sit on the hill above it.

This guide answers the practical questions first (where to park, what it costs, what's open right now), then helps you get the most from a day or a weekend: the hikes, the rivers, the food and the history.

Quick facts (county, zip code, population, why there's no apostrophe) are on our Harpers Ferry facts page. For day trips beyond town, see near Harpers Ferry.

Explore the guide

The best way to spend your first day

1. Park at the Visitor Center (171 Shoreline Drive, at the US 340 stoplight) and pay the entrance fee. Many navigation apps send you into town instead, so type the address in.
2. Ride the park shuttle from the Visitor Center down to Lower Town. Buses run every 10–15 minutes; in winter the last bus is at 5:30pm.
3. Walk to The Point, where the rivers meet and Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia come together.
4. See John Brown's Fort and the John Brown Museum, then climb the stone steps past St. Peter's Church to Jefferson Rock.
5. Have lunch on High Street or Potomac Street, or up the hill on Washington Street (where to eat).
6. Choose your afternoon: a museum loop, the Bolivar Heights battlefield, or a longer hike (best hikes).

Full details: Plan your visit · Parking, fees & shuttle · Getting here from D.C.

Why people fall for this place

The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. … This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.

— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), describing the view he saw here on October 25, 1783

The town is small, about 0.6 square miles, but a remarkable amount of American history happened on these streets. George Washington chose it for a national armory. Meriwether Lewis outfitted the Corps of Discovery here in 1803. John Brown's raid in October 1859 pushed the country toward civil war. After the war, Storer College educated formerly enslaved people and their children for nearly ninety years, and in 1906 W.E.B. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement held their first meeting in the United States on its campus.

Today it's also a trail town: the Appalachian Trail runs right through Lower Town, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy calls its headquarters on Washington Street the trail's "psychological halfway point," and the C&O Canal towpath runs along the Maryland shore across the river.

Read the history · John Brown's raid, explained

Plan around the seasons

• Spring: fewer crowds, the trails greening up, and the A.T. Flip-Flop Kickoff festival in April.
• Summer: river season. Commercial tubing runs mainly Memorial Day to Labor Day (tubing & rafting).
• Fall: color in the Eastern Panhandle usually peaks in late October into early November, and October weekends are busy.
• Winter: quiet streets, open trails and Olde Tyme Christmas on the first two weekends of December (Christmas in Harpers Ferry).

Harpers Ferry by season · Live conditions

Dated festivals and park programs are on the Harpers Ferry events calendar, and month-by-month weather is on our best time to visit page.