From historic mountain ranges, dense forests and distant islands to historic forts, battlefields and nationwide monuments, Virginia has 22 great nationwide parks calling out to modern-day explorers.
Hundreds of thousands of holiday makers flock to well-known websites resembling Shenandoah Nationwide Park, Colonial Nationwide Historic Park and Fredericksburg Nationwide Navy Park for Virginia’s signature mix of pure magnificence and historical past, however there are many less-visited websites the place you’ll be able to escape the crowds.
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As of 2021, Virginia may also declare the glory of getting the most visited site within the Nationwide Park Service system – the Blue Ridge Parkway, which logged a staggering 15.9 million visits in 2021. Whether or not you’re looking for spectacular views, an out of doors live performance or a inexperienced, clear escape from town, Virginia’s nationwide parks have one thing for each kind of traveler. Listed here are seven of our favorites.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Finest park for street trippers
The Blue Ridge Parkway isn’t your typical US nationwide park — it’s really a collection of parks, stretching from the Appalachian highlands of Virginia into North Carolina’s Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park (which, by the way, was America’s second most visited nationwide park in 2021). Spanning 469 miles, the Blue Ridge Parkway covers quite a lot of floor, passing via unspoiled countryside that gives a vastly completely different expertise relying on the season, from the plush inexperienced of summer season to the vivid colours of fall and snowy mountain peaks within the winter.
Constructed as a collection of public works initiatives in the course of the Nice Melancholy, the Parkway’s pure historical past dates again hundreds of thousands of years – its forested ridges are the stays of one of many oldest mountain ranges on this planet. Alongside the route, you’ll discover scenic stops resembling Humpback Rocks, the Peaks of Otter and Mabry Mill, a historic relic from 1903 that is among the most photographed landmarks alongside the Parkway. Customer’s facilities, scenic overlooks, peaceable picnic websites and rewarding mountaineering trails provide loads of methods to take a break from driving.
There are quite a few locations the place you’ll be able to be part of the Parkway – to drive the complete route, begin from the city of Afton, close to Shenandoah Nationwide Park, or from the city of Cherokee in North Carolina, on the sting of Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park.
Shenandoah Nationwide Park
Finest park for mountaineering
Virginia’s first designated nationwide park, Shenandoah Nationwide Park was devoted approach again in 1936. It’s a part of the Blue Ridge Mountain vary, however the Blue Ridge Parkway ends on the park’s entrance and the Skyline Drive takes its place. The park’s 200,000 protected acres present a house for a variety of wildlife, from bobcats and black bears to birds, foxes and brown bats.
Old Rag Mountain is the preferred vacation spot in Shenandoah Nationwide Park, and it has the weekend crowds to show it — attempt to go to on a weekday when you’re mountaineering in peak season (summer season or fall). The 9.5-mile-long Previous Rag hike is famously difficult, but it surely affords a extremely rewarding view from the summit. Close to the middle of the park, Big Meadows is one other favourite cease, a novel mountaintop meadow that is an awesome place to identify wildlife, stargaze, or simply meander via the wild grasses.
In case you’re searching for a spot to mattress down for the evening or a chew to eat, Skyland is a historic resort set inside Shenandoah that many individuals use as a hub for exploring the realm.
George Washington Memorial Parkway
Finest park for escaping the sprawl of Washington, DC
Coming in at No 6 on the Nationwide Park Service’s checklist of the most-visited parks, the George Washington Memorial Parkway is one other scenic route constructed for satisfying leisure drives. Starting simply exterior of Washington, DC, this 25-mile parkway hyperlinks quite a lot of vital historic websites and nature preserves threaded via Virginia, DC and Maryland and main as much as Washington’s former property at Mt Vernon.
Nature-seekers can take their decide from some beautiful pure websites, together with Great Falls Park on the Virginia-Maryland border, recognized for its dramatic assortment of rocky waterfalls. The Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, one of many largest remaining freshwater tidal wetland areas within the DC space, and Turkey Run Park, a part of the Potomac Gorge ecosystem, are additionally prime stops.
Assateague Island Nationwide Seashore
Finest park for seaside lovers
Though finest recognized for its wild ponies, the barrier island of Assateague Island Nationwide Seashore is a habitat for a mess of animals, together with sika deer, ghost crabs, purple fox, and lots of species of shorebirds. The 37-mile island stretches into Maryland, however the Virginia portion is managed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service as Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, with entry from Virginia Seashore through US 13.
This putting part of foreshore kinds a part of the homeland of the Pocomoke and Occohannock individuals, and the NPS operates a customer’s middle and leisure seaside inside the refuge. In addition to hanging out on the seaside, different common actions on the island embody tenting, mountaineering, biking, crabbing, fishing and kayaking.
Colonial Nationwide Historic Park
Finest park for understanding America’s origins
The Colonial National Historical Park incorporates two websites that encapsulate the start and finish of colonial America. Historic Jamestowne and the Yorktown Battlefield are thought of to be among the many most traditionally vital websites in North America, related by the 23-mile Colonial Parkway, which additionally passes via Colonial Williamsburg.
Though you possibly can simply breeze via in a matter of hours, it’s price taking a weekend to completely discover. The Cape Henry Memorial marks the touchdown website of the primary colonists in 1607, and at Jamestowne, you’ll be able to stroll within the footsteps of the primary everlasting English settlers in North America. In the meantime, over on the Yorktown Battlefield, you’ll be able to discover the positioning the place the primary main battle of the American Revolutionary Warfare was fought (it is also a setting for normal re-enactments).
Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania Nationwide Navy Park
Finest park for battlefield buffs
There are various vital Civil Warfare battlefield websites in Virginia — together with at Petersburg, Manassas, and Richmond – however a few of the bloodiest and most tragic battles came about in Fredericksburg and the encompassing settlements of Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania. An estimated 15,000 males had been killed and greater than 85,000 had been wounded on these battlefields, whereas farms had been looted and hundreds of refugees had been compelled into the countryside.
At the moment, the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park affords a stark reminder of why this area remains to be often known as “America’s Battleground.” In addition to the battlefields, the park incorporates quite a lot of historic websites together with Chatham Manor, Salem Church and the positioning the place Stonewall Jackson died.
Customer’s facilities on the Fredericksburg Battlefield and Chancellorsville Battlefield have maps, academic reveals, junior ranger applications and actions that assist put the entire historical past into perspective. Trails such because the Sunken Highway Strolling Path and the Jackson Wounding Path invite guests to wander the identical routes as Civil Warfare troopers – a humbling expertise even at present.
Wolf Lure Nationwide Park for the Performing Arts
Finest park to go to in the summertime
A part of the Nationwide Park System since 2002, Wolf Trap was based as a leisure Farm Park within the Nineteen Sixties following an act of Congress, but it surely’s advanced right into a vibrant cultural hub. At the moment, the park represents a novel partnership between the NPS and a nonprofit arts group. The NPS maintains the pristine grounds and buildings on-site, whereas Wolf Lure Basis oversees the programming. It’s the one nationwide park within the US devoted to the performing arts.
Wolf Lure is lower than 20 miles from Washington, DC, and it is simply accessible by town’s Metro system. The 117-acre park hosts greater than 100 performances throughout a spread of genres each summer season, from pop and jazz to classical music and rock.
Wolf Lure can be well-known for its pure setting. Scattered round its inexperienced grounds are the Filene Heart outside amphitheater, the Barns at Wolf Lure (a music venue in two transformed barns), and the intimate Youngsters’s Theatre-in-the-Woods. To discover the park with out the crowds, attempt visiting within the low season, October via April.
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