West Virginia

West Virginia is almost entirely mountains, and the New River Gorge, now a national park, has some of the best whitewater rafting and rock climbing in the East.

Harpers Ferry, at the meeting point of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, played a real role in the lead-up to the Civil War and still looks much as it did then. Charleston, the capital, sits along the Kanawha River with a smaller-scale downtown.

It's an underrated state for anyone who actually wants to be outdoors rather than just look at mountains from a car window.