Editor's note:Iam excited to introduce an ambitious series by a family planning to visit all of our Virginia State Parks in one year. Ihope you will anxiously await each edition like Iwill!
A visitor contributed post by Nancy Hayes from Stafford, Virginia
Today we started our Great VA State Park Adventure. It seemed like a great idea when we discussed it a month or so back. We would load up our three young and hyper kids and visit all 35 Virginia State Parks in a year. So thinking we should have started weeks ago, we finally decided to go. After a short drive with three bored and tired children and a rousing chorus of are we there yet; we made it to the park. The eldest melted down the moment he got out of the car while the other two raced to the fence to look out at the water.
The air was cool and crisp and the girls demanded to have their "pretty picture" taken. Daddy convinced the eldest to race him to the trail head and the two girls chased after. The kids explored the winding trails and multiple time we had to convinced the baby to come away from the water. I do believe she would have been happy watching the water all day. They laughed and raced and jumped up and down on the wooden bridges to hear the noise. We stop to rest on a fallen tree that had washed up on a small beach area under a railroad track. The kids laughed and played in the sand and we wrote our names in the sand and many pictures taken to remember our adventure.
We hiked back to the car and drove on through the park to get to the playground. The kids made friends with another family, like only kids can do, and played on the playground. They compared notes on the snail shells they all had collected in between trying to convince the other family's poor dog that it would have fun climbing up the steps on the playground and going down the slide. Thank goodness the dog had some foresight at the kids thoughts and flatly refused to go up the steps.
After playing we walked back to the water and the kids and daddy started skipping rocks. Well daddy skipped rocks and the kids threw rock and watched them splash. On the way back to the car the swings called our names and three little ones kicked and squalled as we pushed them. Finally we ended our trip with a turn about the old fashion merry go round and laughed and giggled as we attempted to hang on as daddy pushed us faster and faster.
The park itself was actually really nice. There were many wilderness trails that actually winded through the woods and down to the water front. We were there during off season so parking was not an issue and there were small little beaches the kids had a blast on playing in the sand. It cost $5 to get in and it had boat launches and a pier, playground, and some interesting historical finds.
Editor's note – for more information on Leesylvania State Park click here. Ihave added one of our photos of the park.
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