New year, new adventures! We started off 1st day of
2017 in Westmore Land State Park. On
the occasion of new year all of America’s state parks have ‘first day hike’
event that encourages everyone to explore their surroundings to connect with nature in it's parks. This year it was the sixth annual national event in which all 37
Virginia state parks participated and, were open for all with zero admission fee and a guided hike program. I think this idea of getting people out of their couches on new year is incredible, as it brings them closer to nature.It sure is a healthy way to start a year.
We decided for Westmore land state park which is 90 mins drive from Richmond. The park's trails were first built in 1930s by the Civilian conservation corps (CCC).It is located on the Potomac river's northern neck and offers many trails to hike which are well maintained and
marked out nicely. In case someone hikes alone it’s easy to find way in and out. They also provide cabin and camping for overnight but we just visited for
our special first day hike.
We signed in for the park's popular
'Beach Trail' to the Fossil Beach. It is a short distance away from the visitor Center and opens up
to beautiful fossil beach by the Potomac river which is located below horsehead
cliffs.
We tried to hunt down the fossilised shark
tooths for which this beach is really famous. It was a guided hike program so
our guide also provided us the wire basket to filter the sand and zip locks to
save our find to take home.
After spending good time searching for tooths, we went to
another trail, it just few meters before the fossil beach a right turn for
'turkey neck trail' & 'big meadow trail' starts here with a nice boardwalk
leading to the observation deck where an amazing view of fossil beach and the
meadow surrounding is waiting for your camera to get clicked.
We went to the
end of the board walk to see the trail and swamp but made our comeback after
the swamp.
we had an amazing day and also collected few shells and weird looking stone which we took home with us. After a week, we got another gift a 'First day hike bumper sticker' from the Virginia state
park by mail.
If I recap all what we got then 'free entry to the park, guided hike program, first day hike sticker and most of all we really enjoyed our time with nature', I would say not a bad way to start a new year!right?!
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