Expanding on the stairs of Kaymoor, if you are not yet a master of stairs or haven't evolved mountain calves, then the Kaymoor Mining Steps in Fayetteville/Lansing, West Virginia, will help you get there. After talking about the trail with people who live around here, I learned that some people choose to go up and down it a few times weekly for exercise. Going down isn't so terrible, but walking back up is a challenge. I recommend keeping hydrated during your hike down and up, and to brace yourself so you can enjoy the historically significant experience. Below, I will provide a few pictures to give you a better sense of the number of steps to descend and ascend so that you know what to expect in the case that you want to go for it. From the top: This is the very top which introduces you to the history of Kaymoor Miner's Trail. From here you go down a path leading through rocks, down beside a waterfall, and through more of a dirt trail, as shown below.

Be careful when it's cold out because the ice on the rocks is slippery. If you slip on an icy rock, you might fall off a cliff and die. From there, continue down the narrow path... Finally you'll arrive at this point and turn around to see the beginning of the steps, as shown below. Here's the top of Kaymoor Bottom, shown below: From there, once you've reached the bottom of that straight series of steps, you'll come to these windy steps. You can see the rails where the rail cars used to haul townspeople (Kaymoor Number One miners and their families) up and down the mountain. That is also the next windy passage before this long straightaway below. You see at the end there that the passage stops. From there, you'll go around another quick windy turn, down and around to the final descending series of steps. Here is a view from the top of that final descent: As you can see, it drops down farther into the abyss. I'll show a photograph of the final descent which highlights form a bit better with shadows along the left side of the steps. There you have it. It just keeps going on and on until you get here, your destination of Kaymoor ruins. That's it for the descent. Can you imagine falling down any of those straight series of steps? Luckily the steps are so close together that you might roll more than tumble if you fall just right. More on the abandoned buildings later.

As always, offer travel suggestions in the comments below. I like to photograph landscapes, city-scapes, nature and wildlife photography, old abandoned buildings and other areas involving human-altered scenarios.

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