Tag: Virginia
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Quantico Cascades
Prince William Forest Park, Prince William Co., Virginia (April 2011) We had an enjoyable overnight stay in Prince William Forest Park, tent camping with the Cub Scouts at the Turkey Run Ridge Group Campground. They were working on their Hiking Belt Loop and the den decided upon the Quantico Cascades Trail as their main afternoon…
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Great Falls Park
On the Virginia Side of the Potomac River (2008) Sitting along the wide, placid shoreline of the Potomac River in Washington, DC, it’s hard to imagine raging rapids crashing through a narrow gorge just 15 miles upstream. Here stand the mighty Great Falls, rushing from those first foothills of the Appalachian Mountains further west (map).…
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Inner Banks, Day 2
We spent the first day getting down to our base at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. That set us up well for Day Two. Now we could focus squarely on capturing some unvisited counties. I decided to travel counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise for the international 12MC audience). This map shows the actual coordinates I used to guide…
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Inner Banks, Day 1
I set my sights on a doughnut hole of unvisited counties in northeastern North Carolina. I’d left them untouched until now. No interstate highways passed through them. The didn’t fall on a direct path coming home from the beach. They simply sat there as empty white space on my County Counting map. Seven of them,…
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Jones Point Light
City of Alexandria, Virginia, USA (2000) Only Jones Point light remains as a lighthouse on the Potomac River. It dates back to 1856. The land on which it rests returned to the Commonwealth of Virginia only ten years earlier. I mention this because I first stumbled across the Jones Point Light while conducting field research…
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Assateague Island Lighthouse
Chincoteague National Wildlife Reserve; Assateague Island, Virginia (October 2012) The Assateague Lighthouse (map) is easily accessible and open to the public. A simple trip to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the northern end of Virginia’s Eastern Shore is all that’s required. Drive through the quaint fishing village of Chincoteague and across the causeway onto…
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Fort C.F. Smith
Defenses of Washington – in Arlington Co., VA (July 2009) Arlington County is fortunate to own the historic remnants of a small Civil War fort as part of a 19-acre acquisition from a private landowner in 1994. In addition to the historic fortification the park includes the restored Hendry House that is available for weddings…
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White’s Ferry
Potomac River between Montgomery Co., MD and Loudoun Co., VA (September 2007) We arrived at the White’s Ferry landing west of Poolesville Maryland on our journey towards Virginia’s wine country and took our place in queue. A small flat-bottomed barge carried weekend explorers across the river on this sunny Saturday afternoon. The ferryboat “Jubal A.…
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Tangier Island Ferry
Reedville to Tangier, Virginia (June 2000) We drove down the spine of Virginia’s scenic Northern Neck, a broad appendage of land between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers that becomes increasingly isolated as easterly-flowing waters widen on their way to Chesapeake Bay. We traveled along Route 3, then onto Route 360 until we ran out of…
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Jamestown-Scotland Ferry
Crossing the James River near Jamestown, Virginia (October 2007) I wanted to avoid heavy traffic on Interstate 64 during my drive to Williamsburg, Virginia, electing instead to hug the rural southern bank of the James River. It took longer and I went farther, but I wandered empty winding ribbons of rolling terrain, woodlands, plantations and…