Our family of Michigan road warriors considers
Beckley a must-stop any time we're driving through the mountains of
southern West Virginia.
In fact, we once snoozed for several hours in the parking lot of our favorite spot, waiting for it to open.
We're drawn repeatedly to Tamarack, a craft and fine arts center near the intersections of two superhighways, I-77 and I-64, that showcases — as its motto boasts — "the best of West Virginia."
Complete with a cafe run by the state's acclaimed Greenbrier Resort, it makes Beckley a destination rather than just another pit stop en route to somewhere else.
Beyond thousands of art and craft pieces — from handcrafted baskets, leather goods, jewelry, rustic furniture and quilts to art glass, ceramics, paintings and sculpture — Tamarack's collection includes West Virginia music, instruments, books, food products and other reflections of Mountain State culture.
It's all displayed in a doughnut-shaped contemporary building with a multi-peaked red roof symbolic of the nearby mountains. Tamarack visitors pause along the circular corridor to watch West Virginia potters, carvers and other artisans at work or catch a live performance or cultural film in the theater.
Starring in the cafeteria-style Food Court are such down-home specialties as fried green tomatoes, red-eye country ham, cheesy stone-ground grits, West Virginia rainbow trout, Greenbrier peaches and coconut-orange pie.
To work off calories, travelers may take a trip on the nearby New River in a raft or inflatable kayak. Expect mild to moderate ripples on the Upper New and big-water rapids on the Lower New, April through October.