Belle Isle, Westmoreland, Caledon, Leesylvania, Mason Neck, and the Arlington National Cemetery

With only a few state parks left, and a plan to visit them all in the next six months, things are starting to wind down. When I saw that the weather forecast for the weekend was for 65 degree temps both days, I suggested to Dave that we go out to Belle Isle State Park for a day hike Saturday and knock that one out, since it’s kind of by itself. He agreed.

And then I started looking a little more closely at the map of the parks that we had left, and realized it looked like this:
 

 

There’s Wilderness over there all by itself to the west, False Cape down to the southeast, Kiptopke out on the Eastern Shore…and then the other five are very, very close together. In fact, if you think about where Fredericksburg is in relation to all of these, the five park weekend trip becomes a no-brainer.

And so, that’s exactly what we did. We got up early Saturday morning and drove out to Belle Isle, then hit Westmoreland and Caledon, spent the night in a cheap motel in Fredericksburg (There were no cabins available.) On Sunday morning we got up, ate free continental breakfast, and drove up to Leesylvania and Mason Neck. We even made a last minute decision to go to Arlington and visit Arlington National Cemetery while we were in the area!

Belle Isle is lovely. There is an old mansion and a nearby guest house that you can rent out for weddings and the like and stay in. We didn’t get to see inside it of course since we didn’t rent it.

 

 

We stopped in at the gift shop and chatted with the fellow on duty, then drove down to the Mulberry Creek Boardwalk and checked out the creek.

 

 

What a great area! It looks like it would be fun to put the kayaks in and do a little fishing. There was signage about life in the salt marsh and the different types of critters you might find there. We saw some HUGE turkey buzzards flying around and checked out the campground, which was very nice.

We also saw HUNDREDS of Canada geese parked in a field, and checked out the marina on the other side of the park.

 

Next, we headed out for Westmoreland State Park. Westmoreland was the place I’d intended to stay when we finally did this four park section, and it is definitely a place we’d like to visit in the summer!

 

 

 

 

The Visitor’s Center is very nice and had information on shark teeth and other fossils we might see on the Fossil Beach trail, where there’s a cool beach with an amazing overhanging cliff. We saw a Bald Eagle on the way back up the trail.

 

 

At the other end of the park there’s lots of boat launching spots, and a pool. The campground is a bit small and crowded and the bathhouses are the old style. The cabins near the Potomac River Retreat end of the park are nice and not as close together as the ones on the end near where we hiked.

 

Last park for the day was Caledon State Park, which is known for its Bald Eagles.

 

We walked in at 4:00, which is closing time, but the ranger on duty and the park police officer, Sarah B. and Sammy, were both cheerful and welcoming and talked to us for about 40 minutes about Caledon and the State Park system in general. They were perhaps the most personable of all the park staff we’ve met so far—which is saying something!

 

After looking around Caledon we headed into Fredericksburg and finally found our hotel. I think we should use our handheld GPS unit and toss Dave’s car GPS out the window—that thing is always sending us off on wildgoose chases! The hotel, for being really cheap, was nice enough and had a very comfortable bed. Yay! We ate too much Italian food and crashed.

On Sunday morning, having lost an hour to Daylight Savings time, we slept as late as we wanted before hitting the hotel breakfast. Then we grabbed some prepacked portable lunch food from WaWa and headed for Leesylvania State Park. On the way I read about the park from my Pocket Ranger app out loud to David. I was very surprised to find out that Leesylvania was the home of “Lighthorse” Harry Lee, and also surprised to find out that he was Robert E. Lee’s father. How did I NOT KNOW THAT? Shame on me! I was very excited at that point, figuring there would be some historical exhibits or a house or something to tour.

 

Nothing. Nada. Even if there had been, I wouldn’t have known about it, because there was no one on duty, no buildings open, and the kiosk wasn’t even working. Good thing I had my pocket app so I could find my way around. The river is lovely, the marina is great if you have a big boat, but it wouldn’t be suitable for us with the kayaks.

 

The only camping is primitive and it’s tiny and open and right on the river. I bet the group we saw there was FREEZING with the wind off the water. As we were leaving, we saw a staff member walking up to the first building we got to, so I jumped out to ask about the code. He didn’t know it, but he knew where to look so I left with it after all.

Last park on our list was Mason Neck. We rolled in with the plan to do a short hike and have lunch. We discovered that it was very, very cold when the wind blew despite the 60 weather. We ended up hiking short and fast and eating in the car.
 

After Mason Neck we decided that we wanted some more history in our weekend and we were close enough to Arlington to go the cemetery, since neither of us had been. We drove up to Arlington and took way too long to find our way to the cemetery. We visited Kennedy’s grave, which made me tear up, then saw Robert E. Lee’s house and went down to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the changing of the guard.

 

 

 

 

After that it was a fast and furious drive home with a stop for coffee and groceries. Five state parks and a national historical site in two days!