in Charlottesville, VA along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“For solitude on the northern stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, skip the hordes at Humpback Rocks and drive southwest to MP 18.5. After parking, cross the parkway and look for the White Rock Falls trail marker. Follow the yellow-blazed trail as it unfurls beside lichen-covered rocks and gurgling White Rock Creek. The trail crosses the creek after 1.4 miles, where you’ll find boulder-lined pools ready-made for wading.

To finish the loop, rock-hop across the creek to switchbacks that travel close to the falls, tempering the scenic pay-off with a steep, 400-foot climb. An easy-to-miss side trail before the last switchback leads to hidden, but stellar views of the 35-foot falls. Once at the top, snap a photo of Priest Mountain then continue over rippling brooks and small wooden bridges. At the parkway, follow the trail across the road to Slacks Overlook, visible to your left. From the overlook, walk right to pick up the blue-blazed Slacks Overlook Trail, a narrow multi-use trail shared with mountain bikers. Turn right at White Rock Gap Trail (a left leads to Sherando Lake Campground) and continue for a half-mile back to your car.

-Mapped by Amy C. Balfour”

To view the full details of the trip, the trail, the submitted pictures, and the coordinates, you can head to the Backpacker.com website – White Rock Falls Trail ?????? ????? ???? .

The festival featured the National Strawberry Eating Contest, lots of food vendors, all sorts of craft vendors and tents set up with goods for sale, games for kids, and more. Below are some pictures and a short (~15 second) video of the bagpipe band from Winchester that was there.

Even though it went to a good cause (Emmanuel Church) I still feel like $20 per car was a bit pricey to charge as entrance, especially for those of us who just came with two people (like us). If it was a family of 5 or bigger group, then the flat rate was worth it. I’d like to see a per person charge up to a certain number of people. I think that would even attract more people being more affordable. But, still, the parking “lot” was packed with tons of cars – so congrats on a great success for the 16th annual festival.

Hopefully we’ll come home with some good pictures, videos, and maybe a story or two. The weather for the weekend looks good during the days so it should be a great time.

It’s a bit pricey in my opinion to get in – $20 per car for a one day pass (it runs Saturday and Sunday) – so it better be worth it and not rain! Get the full low down on the festival at the Delaplane Strawberry Festival website!

If you’re looking for a listing of all the state parks in Virginia, then look no further. Below is a list of all the Virginia State Parks and links to their individual pages within the Virginia State Parks website.

Bear Creek Lake (BC)
Belle Isle (BI)
Breaks Interstate (BR)
Caledon Natural Area (CA)
Chippokes Plantation (CP)
Claytor Lake (CL)
Douthat (DO)
False Cape (FC)
Fairy Stone (FS)
First Landing (FL)
Grayson Highlands (GH)
High Bridge Trail (HB)
Holliday Lake (HL)
Hungry Mother (HM)
James River (JR)
Kiptopeke (KP)
Lake Anna (LA)
Leesylvania (LE)
Mason Neck (MN)
Natural Tunnel (NT)
New River Trail (NR)
Occoneechee (OC)
Pocahontas (PO)
Sailor’s Creek Battlefield Historic (SC)
Shenandoah River Raymond R. “Andy” Guest Jr. (SH)
Shot Tower (ST)
Sky Meadows (SK)
Smith Mountain Lake (SM)
Southwest Virginia Museum Historical (SW)
Staunton River (SR)
Staunton River Battlefield (SB)
Tabb Monument
Twin Lakes (TL)
Westmoreland (WE)
Wilderness Road (WR)
York River (YR)

Enjoy all the beautiful areas that Virginia has to offer!

With the spring quickly approaching, I have a few different hikes that I want to get to within the next few months in the Northern Virginia area.

1. Bull Run Mountain Conservancy area
2. Raven Rocks
3. Buzzard Hill
4. Sky Meadows

Some of these have been posted about here on Virginia Hiker, but I have yet to get out on them and hopefully that will happen before May!

Have you been to any of these trails? Are they as good as they sound?

A couple of their books will overlaps states depending on the area that it features. For Virginia hikes, the best two to check out would be 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Richmond and 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington D.C..

I’ll be featuring some more hiking trail guide books for Virginia trails soon, but I wanted to put out this set now. Check them out and let us know what you think!

Mailing Address:
Turkey Run Park
McLean, VA 22101-0001
703-289-2530

Fredericksburg
Following a number of intense clashes between Union and Confederate tropps at Fredericksburg in December 1862, one of the worst military disasters of the Civil War resulted in a devastating defeat for the Union army, with casualties totaling at least 12,500 men. The site of this killing field was below Marye’s Heights, a strategic hill that, as was known to the Union forces, was bristling with Confederate batteries of cannon and infantry. What the Union commanders did not know, however, was what lay hidden at the base of the hill, along a sunken road and out of sight behind the breastwork of a stone wall.

As the first Union brigade of soldiers charged across a 400-yard expanse of open ground in an attempt to storm the hill, they were suddenly mowed down by the massive volley of Confederate musket fire that erupted from behind the wall. From noon until dark, wave after wave charged across the field, but each suffered the same fate. The slaughter continued, with not a single Northerner ever reaching the wall. Feeling from this defeat, the demoralized Union army withdrew northward across the Rappahannock River.


Chancellorsville
Nearly five months later, in early May 1863, the next fierce occurred around Chancellorsville, about ten miles to the northwest of Fredericksburg. Even though the Confederates were greatly outnumbered, they nevertheless achieved another victory. In the final clash of the battle, Confederates opened a withering attack upon a 22,000 man Union force that, earlier in the day, had captured the defenses in and around Fredericksburg. Heavy casualties from those several days of fighting totaled more than 17,000 Union and nearly 13,000 Confederate soldiers.

The Wilderness
A year later, two days at savage, confused, hand-to-hand combat occurred between Union and Confederate armies in an area of dense scrubby pines and oaks known as the Wilderness, about 15 miles northwest of Fredericksburg. The smoke from forest fires reduced visibility further, adding to the chaos of the conflict. Union casualties totaled nearly 18,000 men, while the Confederates sustained more than 8,000 killed, wounded, or captured. Unlike previous Union commanders in the Virginia campaign, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant refused to retreat. Instead, he ordered his forces on southward, in a campaign designed to wear down and ultimately defeat General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army.

Spotsylvania Court House
Several days later, the armies clashed again in fierce combat at the important crossroads junction of Spotsylvania Court House. Some of the most brutal combat of the Civil War occurred at a U-shaped salient known as the “mule shoe.” The Union forces far outnumbered and soon overwhelmed the Confederates. As more and more reinforcements on both sides poured into the battle around the jutting angle, savage hand-to-hand warfare erupted, with soldiers using bayonets, knives, clubs, rocks, and bare fists. For 20 hours, the slaughtering raged on, made worse by a downpour of rain and deepening mud, and after midnight, the Southerners finally retreated to form new defense lines. For all the fighting, which continued for the next two weeks, there were no measurable gains for either side. Following the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, the area around Fredericksburg became an enormous open-air hospital, where surgeons labored around the clock attending to the 20,000 wounded Union and Confederate soldiers.

The park has two visitor centers, providing interpretive exhibits, an audiovisual program, and publications. One is near the base of Marye’s Heights at 1013 Lafayette Boulevard in the Fredericksburg unit, and the other is at Chancellorsville, eight miles west of I-95 on State Route 3. A self-guided auto tour and self-guided walking routes lead to points of interest. Other interpretive facilities include exhibit shelters at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House units.The park headquarters is located in the red-brick, 18th century style plantation mansion, Chatham Manor, to the north of the Rappahannock River. This gran old structure served as a Union army headquarters and field hospital during the Civil War. The park also offers walking tours during the summer, and picnic areas are available at all four battlefield units, Chatham Manor, and the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. Access to the park includes State Route 3, east from I-95 to Fredericksburg and west from I-95 to the Chancellorsville and Wilderness units. One of the accesses to the Spotslyvania Court House unit is on State Route 613, southeast from State Route 3, just to the east of the Wilderness Battlefield.

The trail section within Virginia spans 550 miles and can go from elevations of 265 feet to over 5,000 feet! This will give you a vary wide range of weather conditions depending on the section of trail and time of year that you are hiking.

Where and When To Go:
Northern Virginia: April through early June, September through early November. Summer heat and humidity can be oppressive
Shenandoah: April—June, September, October. July and August are bearable except during a heat wave.
Central Virginia: April—June and September—October. July and August are bearable except during a heat wave.
Southwest Virginia: May—October.

Image from SherpaGuides.com.

The following comes from the ATC website for the Virginia section of trail:


Northern Virginia
In northern Virginia, the Appalachian Trail follows a long, low ridge, including a notoriously strenuous “roller-coaster” section south of Snickers Gap. It is less heavily traveled and is crossed by fewer roads than the Trail in Maryland. This is one of the best places on the A.T. for “spring break” hikes. Download Spring Break Hiking (PDF) to find out more about hiking on the A.T. in March and April.

The northern Virginia section stretches 54 miles from the Virginia/West Virginia state line south to Shenandoah National Park.

Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park, with 104 miles of well-graded and well-maintained Trail and climbs rarely exceeding 500 or 1,000 feet, is excellent for beginning hikers and is noted for its many vistas and abundant wildlife. A variety of side trails provides excellent opportunities for one- or two-day circuit hikes.

Nearby Skyline Drive has many waysides and concessions for resupply stops. The park gets very busy during weekends and in late October, during peak foliage-changing season. Park facilities close from late November through March; when snow shuts down Skyline Drive, the entire park may become inaccessible except on cross-country skis or snowshoes. Backcountry permits are required when camping in the park.

Central Virginia
South of Shenandoah, the A.T. parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway. The farther south it goes, the more difficult the hiking becomes; the treadway is well-graded, but includes a number of 2,000- and 3,000-foot climbs. Mature timber, high summits, and spectacular wilderness can be found in the George Washington National Forest, north of Roanoke. The Trail then leaves the parkway and travels west across the Great Valley of the Appalachians through the Jefferson National Forest to the Allegheny Plateau, a splendid wilderness trip.

Central Virginia features many noteworthy points, with views from unusual rock formations and outcroppings and some of the northernmost balds on the Trails. Noteworthy peaks include Humpback Rocks, Three Ridges, the Priest, McAfee Knob, and Dragon’s Tooth. This section is more rugged and remote than the Shenandoah, but easier and more accessible than the Trail in Southwest Virginia.

The Central Virginia section covers 226 miles from the southern end of Shenandoah National Park south to Pearisburg.

Southwest Virginia
Throughout the Mt. Rogers region in southwest Virginia, where the Trail moves into the southern Appalachians, the floral displays of rhododendron and azalea in June and July are outstanding. The state’s highest mountain, Mt. Rogers, an area of spectacular highland meadows, routinely receives snowfall from October to May, making it considerably colder, wetter, and snowier than other areas of Virginia.

The northern portion of this section provides some of the A.T.’s best opportunities for solitude; toward the southern end the open meadows of the Mt. Rogers high country (5,000 feet and above) attract many visitors. At the southern border is the quintessential “Trail town,” Damascus, Virginia.

The Southwest Virginia section of the Trail covers 166 miles from Pearisburg south to Damascus.

For more detailed information about the Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail, then take a look at the ATC website which recommends trail guides and more!

The Breaks Interstate Park is one of two interstate parks in America and encompasses 4,500 acres of woodland. The Breaks, home of the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi River, also rises to lofty heights where golden eagles make their home. The Towers and other rock formations, caves, flora and wildlife make the Breaks Park a unique tourist destination. History, legend and lore combine with the scenic beauty of the Park which was the reported destination of several trips by Daniel Boone. It is the home of Pow Wow Cave, used by the Shawnee Indians and those who love mystery and adventure can search for the buried silver treasure of John Swift. For active visitors, the park also offers hiking, bike and driving trails, picnic and recreation areas, a lake with pedal boats, a swimming pool, horseback riding and an amphitheater. A rustic lodge, cottages and a large campground are available for extended visits. The Breaks Park also has a modern conference center, restaurant, gift shop and visitor’s center. The folks in Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia welcome you to the Breaks Interstate Park! Having been many times, this is incredibly true!

The park offers so many different activities and things to see/do, including more than 10 hiking trails, that I do not want to bore you with listing them all here. So instead, check out the Breaks Interstate Park website and you can get all the details there.

The park is an amazing place to go if you are in that area and well worth it. On any summer day, expect it to be busy and for crowds to be at the pool!