Variety is the essence of Virginia's great outdoors. Whether it's adventure or relaxation you seek, Virginia's outdoors are the perfect setting for a vacation, weekend outing, or day trip.
Variety is the essence of Virginia's great outdoors. Whether it's adventure or relaxation you seek, Virginia's outdoors are the perfect setting for a vacation, weekend outing, or day trip.
Virginia's variety of recreational opportunities is as varied as the topography. The mountains and valleys of the western part of the state invite campers while the eastern shores attract water lovers with tidal rivers, the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Whether it's adventure or relaxation you seek, Virginia's outdoors are the perfect setting for a vacation, weekend outing or day trip. Our state parks offer an extensive system of natural areas, historic sites and parks providing camping, hiking trails, cabins and organized outdoor adventure programs.
Each region of Virginia awaits your discovery of the features or special accommodations they have for your "accessible enjoyment." Hike on accessible trails in the rugged alpine scenery at Grayson Highlands State Park in the Southwest Virginia Highlands. This facility also has an accessible campsite, picnic areas and an interpretive program having amplified audio units for visitors with hearing impairments. Touch animal pelts and other nature items or romp on two accessible playgrounds at Lake Anna State Park in Northern Virginia. If you want to visit the habitat of bald eagles, Mason Neck State Park, also in Northern Virginia, has a wheelchair-accessible observation point for looking at area wildlife.
The loveliness of the Shenandoah Valley is the setting for Douthat State Park, a national historic landmark encompassing more than 4,000 acres. This park has wheelchair accessible camping, picnicking and lodging facilities. Similar accessible accommodations are available at Pocahontas State Park in Central Virginia, along with an ecology camp that is usable by visitors in wheelchairs.
Wheelchair-accessible camp sites and bathing facilities with roll-in showers are found at Sherando Lake near Waynesboro. For more luxurious accommodations, accessible cabins can be reserved at Claytor Lake and Hungry Mother state parks in the mountainous backdrop of the Southwest Blue Ridge Highlands.
You can also enjoy Virginia's national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and recreation areas. Explore the vast natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley along the Blue Ridge Parkway at Rocky Knob, which has wheelchair-accessible campsites, bathhouse and trails. You can find less rustic accommodations and several wheelchair-accessible rooms at the Skyland Lodge in the Shenandoah National Park.
Programs for visitors with hearing, visual, or mobility impairments and tape-recorded tours are available at the Augusta Wetlands Trail in the George Washington National Forest. A different outdoor recreation opportunity is the fully accessible rifle and trap shooting range near Blacksburg in the Jefferson National Forest.
Virginia offers diverse outdoor recreation activities. Take a picture of migrating birds or butterflies in the ramped photo blind at the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. More than 250 species of birds congregate here to feed before continuing their journey across the Chesapeake Bay. Bird watchers can enjoy a half-mile, wheelchair- accessible trail through the salt marshes. Visitors who are blind or have low vision can get a mental picture of Tidewater and Hampton Roads' Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge by using available portable tape recorders and audiocassettes that describe these unique forested wetlands.
In addition to state and national parks, campers will enjoy numerous private campgrounds throughout the state. Wheelchair users will find accessible sites, assistance with hookups and bathing facilities with roll-in showers at Paramount's King's Dominion Campground in Doswell, Small Country Campground in Louisa and Holiday Trav-L-Park in Virginia Beach.
Hunting is allowed in designated areas of Virginia's state parks and national forests. Deer and turkeys are major big game prey, while squirrel, grouse, rabbit, pheasant, waterfowl and quail are popular also. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is just one of several areas having special programs for hunters using wheelchairs.
Whether it is an afternoon of tubing or boating, the thrill of whitewater rafting, wind surfing or scuba diving at shipwrecks off the coast, Virginia is a playground for lovers of water activities. Assateague Island National Seashore on Virginia's Eastern Shore even has beach wheelchairs with balloon tires to make the Atlantic Ocean accessible for visitors with mobility impairments.
Virginia's freshwater streams have more than 25 species of fish, including striped bass, crappie, trout and catfish. You can find accessible fishing piers and boat ramps in every region of the state through the efforts of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Their motto is "Providing Fishing Access for All Anglers."
The Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean possess abundant opportunities for saltwater fishing. Considered one of the most productive marine-life estuaries in the world, the Chesapeake Bay offers great sport not only in catching larger fish such as cobia, black drum and red drum, but also smaller fish like bluefish, speckled trout, gray trout, summer flounder and Spanish mackerel, which are plentiful in the summer months. Try out your fishing skills at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore. This 375-acre park at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay has a 1000-foot accessible pier.
The Atlantic Ocean waters are home to blue marlin, dolphin, wahoo, yellowfin tuna and white marlin. Flounder is the undisputed king of the ocean side of the Eastern Shore, with the town of Wachapreague known as the "world's flounder fishing capital."
Variety is the essence of Virginia's great outdoors. Whether you like "roughing" it or staying in cozy cabins or luxury hotels, you have many options for enjoying VirginiaÕs beauty.
Featured Attractions
Assateague
Island National Seashore
Chincoteague
National Wildlife Refuge
Claytor
Lake State Park
Douthat State Park
Eastern
Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge
George
Washington National Forest
Grayson
Highlands State Park
Great
Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
Holiday
Trav-L-Park
Hungry
Mother State Park
Jefferson
National Forest
Kiptopeke
State Park
Lake
Anna State Park
Paramount's
King's Dominion Campground
Pocahontas
State Park
Rocky
Knob
Skyland
Lodge
Small
Country Campground
PHOTOS COURTESY OF
THE VIRGINIA TOURISM CORPORATION
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