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Running trails in Fairmont, WV
Fairmont has 8 trails in the directory — 2 paved and 2 open 24 hours. 5 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 3,253 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Valley Falls State Park
4.8 ★★★★★ 1,411 reviews
Sprawling 1,145-acre park with waterfalls, 18 miles of trails & a river for fishing & kayaking.
Palatine Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 888 reviews
Scenic riverside park with walking paths, a boat launch & water activities, plus a splash pad.
Pricketts Fort State Park
4.7 ★★★★★ 743 reviews
State park featuring a re-creation of Pricketts Fort, with actors demonstrating 18th-century life.
Windmill Park
4.4 ★★★★☆ 120 reviews
Park for kids featuring fields for baseball and soccer, plus a playground.
Bunner Ridge Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 27 reviews
West Virginia Civil War Trails: Attacking Fairmont
4.1 ★★★★☆ 19 reviews
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Fairmont
- Match the surface to your legs. Most of what's here is paved (2 of 8). Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More paved trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 2 trails in Fairmont are open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 5 of the 8 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm. 1 is lit, which is what you want for winter evenings.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 4 have trailhead parking and 3 have restrooms in Fairmont. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 1 with mile markers, 1 that runners describe as quiet, 1 dog-friendly, and 1 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Fairmont trails by type
Running trails near Fairmont
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.