Thursday, January 01, 2015

New Year's Day Hike: Leesylvania State Park

If there's a better way to start a new year than a hike on January 1st, I haven't found it. We kept the tradition alive by hitting Leesylvania State Park with my Brother and Sister-in-Law.

I admit it, I didn't have high expectations for Leesylvania. On the pros side, it was a Virginia State Park, and chunk of green space that we had never explored. On the cons side, it didn't look especially large and I never really heard anyone recommend it.

Well, now I'm here to recommend it. The park was awesome. It had everything I could ask for: beautifully manicured trails, a beach to explore, historic sites (oooh, a grave yard!), geocaching, fishing, birding and all around amazing views. Yes, it's true, the park isn't huge. We did most of the in-park trails and that was about 5 miles of hiking. Though there is a section of the Potomac Heritage Trail that extends beyond the park which we didn't do.

The park, especially in the summer, would be idea to visit with kids.  Next to Leesylvania is Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge which is only accessible by boat. How cool is that?  That's going on my outdoor TODO list.

Oh, and Maryn noticed a couple of Munzee barcodes dangling from trees. So before you go out, you may want to install that app and play along. 

Whoa, I almost forgot the most important amenity of the park. It's located just a couple of miles from a Wegmans.  That meant a hot cup of soup and a fun shopping trip (well, fun for Shira) after freezing our tush's off.

All in all, an amazing park and an amazing day. What a way to kick of 2015!

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