Tandem Jump in West Virginia

West Virginia jumps you over old mountains. The Appalachians here are ancient and worn soft, folding into ridge after ridge with deep valleys between and rivers (the New River, the Potomac), threading the bottoms. From altitude it reads as endless green corrugation, and in October, when the foliage turns, the whole thing lights up beneath the canopy. It's a different kind of descent than the coast or the flatlands offer.

Tandem is the easy way in. You ride out the freefall and canopy flight harnessed to an experienced instructor, and the drop zones put real weight on the pre-jump briefing so a first-timer boards the plane knowing what's coming. The pitch is simple: the thrill of the jump set against the rugged sprawl of the Mountain State.