Spruce Knob–Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area is a protected landscape in eastern West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, created by Congress on September 28, 1965, as the first national recreation area within a United States national forest and administered by the U.S. Forest Service. It was established to protect three celebrated natural landmarks: Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia and the highest summit in the Allegheny Mountains; the towering quartzite crag of Seneca Rocks, long popular with climbers; and Smoke Hole Canyon along the South Branch Potomac River. Together they make the area notable for both scenic variety and a new recreation-focused approach to federal land protection.