BAREFOOT BEACHCOMBING

Camping - Chippokes State Park - Surry, Virginia - April 2021

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It's Earth Week, so I decided to take a few days off and go into nature. I made a reservation for Chippokes State Park in Surry, Virginia. It's just over an hour away. Chippokes has 50 campsites in two loops. I stayed in space S08 which is a paved, pull-through site. (You can see the specific details about the site below.) All the RV sites have water and electric hookups at the site. And the park has a dump station on the entrance road.

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The park is in Surry, Virginia, just past the Surry Nuclear Power Plant and across from Historic Jamestown on the James River and encompasses 1947 acres. The full name of the park is Chippokes Plantation State Park. This property was originally a plantation and still has a lot of that history on the property. It is one of the oldest continually farmed plantations in the country. It has been (and continues to be) a working farm since 1619. You can tour the historic area with its antebellum mansion and outbuildings, walk through formal gardens, and view antique equipment at the Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum.

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The park also has a nice long beach along the James River. It's typically calm and covered with shells and fossils eroding from the banks. That erosion has caused a number of large trees to fall from the bank (about 30 - 40 feet up) down onto the beach making part of it impassable.

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www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/chippokes-plantation

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I rode the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry across the James River from Surry to Jamestown and drove up into James City County to a park called Freedom Park. Freedom Park has a rich historical background dating back to the 1650s. This park is the site of an 18th Century cemetery, the Revolutionary War Battle of Spencer’s Ordinary (1781) and a 17th Century domicile which is revealing much archaeological research of the early colonial period (1680-1730). Freedom Park was also home to one of the nation's earliest Free Black Settlements in America from 1803-1850. Three historically accurate recreated cabins are located in the park, and are furnished with items authentic to the period. It started pouring down rain while I was hiking in the woods, so I didn't get a chance to check out the cabins. I'll be sure to check them out the next time I'm in the area.

 

The Williamsburg Botanical Garden is also located at Freedom Park. Volunteers maintain the area which features more than 800 species of native vegetation.

 

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The Freedom also has miles of multi-use trails and more than 20 miles of mountain bike trails winding through historical sites, forests and along creeks and open meadows.

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Since the rain cut my hike short, I decided to drive along the Colonial Parkway, which is always beautiful.

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This was a great couple of days to start off Earth Week. I'm planning to do some other outdoor things this week too, celebrating the Earth.