Virginia Is For Lovers

The ad agency that created Virginia’s iconic tourism slogan claims its origin is that regardless of what you love – mountains, beaches, history – there is somewhere for you to visit in the state. I also like the theory that the slogan references a landmark civil rights case, Loving v Virginia, that legalized interracial marriage in the Commonwealth shortly before the slogan first appeared.

We happen to love Virginia State Parks, at least compared to NC State Parks, which is our current frame of reference. Our absolute favorite is Grayson Highlands in the Virginia Blue Ridge where we have camped and hiked multiple times. On our way to the NWR where I would be volunteering, we visited two new to us VA State Parks and they didn’t disappoint.

First up was a week at First Landing, located between Norfolk and VA Beach at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Aptly named, it is where English colonists first landed in 1607. Because of Covid and the dense population of the area, we hardly left the park. Which was just fine because we had a great site and the park has a beach and plenty of trails.

Michael took a day off of work for his 37th birthday and we biked the Cape Henry Trail, which goes through a forest, cypress swamp, and salt marsh habitat. I thought it was a 6-mile loop but it ended up being 6 miles out plus 6 miles back. Oops, should have packed more water for that one!

Next, we spent the weekend near Richmond at Pocahontas State Park. We chose it mainly because it was an easy one hour drive to the NWR and it had availability, a rare find for a state park on a summer weekend. We were pleasantly surprised by its network of mountain biking trails and will definitely revisit just to ride.