We've had some unique experiences at our state parks. Whether it was camping in the mid spring (it was cold!) at Natural Tunnel State Park or getting a great view and jumping in the pool at Breaks Interstate Park, there is a lot to offer for those wanting a relatively inexpensive, natural vacation where you can relax a bit and reflect if you want.
This year Virginia's state parks are celebrating their 80th anniversary and welcome state and out-of-state residents alike. I've seen a lot of Claytor Lake State Park lately, but then, I volunteer once a week there in the summer at their nature destination, the "discovery center." Claytor also has a generous lake for canoeing and fishing or lying on their beach, and many state parks have the same thing, along with camping possibilities.
We've had more than a few memorable experiences with them. At Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, we took our young sons on a trek that wound past the lake and into the woods, to where a few huge pines stood. We were told the pines were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, which seemed reasonable. The hike back to our tent was not so reasonable; we wound up carrying our youngest son, who was barely two years old then. They probably enjoyed going to the beach and playing with sand the most.
Fairy Stone only the spouse and I have visited in recent years. It has a "dreamy, religious" theme to it. Supposedly these wood fairies or elves became sad about hearing that Jesus had been tortured, beaten, and died on the cross. So they wept and their tears formed cross like stones. Actually, scientists believe a certain geologic process in the Blue Ridge mountain ridge of Virginia, in the area that became the Fairy Stone State Park, pushed up stones, many of which looked like crosses or part of a cross shape. The shape was prominent in staurolite crystals, but finding a cross shaped stone is another matter. I bought a "fairy stone" necklace while there; I still can't tell if it's a rare stone or plastic.
Each state park in Virginia has its "own" legend or tale to tell, which I'm sure other state parks have as well. I'm planning to camp soon. Getting out in nature away from the cares and hustle and bustle of the city is okay with me. It's time to get out and enjoy the woods!
Thoreau said you can never have enough of nature. This is true if you have a very busy life, and even if you have a "not too busy" life, like those of us on break during the summer from school with not a lot of money in our pockets. Which makes visiting a state park a great value.
Did you know there was a conference in the 1920s about making state parks a widespread ideal in the U. S.? In the 1930s I know six parks were developed, using CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) help in order to promote visiting nature in the state of Virginia. In the thirties the Smokies, a national park in Tennessee, was also built and promoted. President Roosevelt did his best to give people work (Obama "wants" to do this but the entrenched and negative Republican party now is not allowing it). But state parks serve an important function.
State parks provide a place not too far from home where you can take your family to visit for part of a day or even a weekend, to imbibe in the fruits of the natural environment. When we went to Fairy Stone State Park we weren't totally certain what we would see. But a mother deer tried to make her pretty fawn twins invisible by setting them in high grass in an open area across from a picnic shelter we drove by on the way to our campground. And a squirrel tried to "sneak" around our tent as my spouse had tossed some empty pistachio nut shells in the leave litter near our campsite. Fairy Stone is interesting; in part one side of the camping area there is about a 20 foot drop down from the sites, then it "really" drops down! You don't see those with little kids camping on that side, but we did. And Mr. Squirrel came as close as the other side of the cooking pit with its grill turned up, putting his nose up for a sniff. But there was no food there so he finally decided to run away into the woods.
We saw other bits of nature -- there was many yellow and black tiger swallowtails flitting about, and some gathered on some gravel near a shelter, as though they were sucking up some nutrients from it. At the beach we saw kids have a fun time on these huge, fiberglass (?) animals, beaver, frogs and logs, that little kids could ride on in shallow water. A park ranger said another park, Claytor Lake, had rejected these big toys so Fairy Stone said they would take them. So, they were
"pretend" nature, but a place where they could splash around and watch birds fly overhead and soak up some sun for some needed vitamin D.
State parks are much cheaper than motel and hotel rooms (unless you reserve an air conditioned cabin, which partly defeats the purpose of camping-- what, you don't want sand in your shoes, or water dripping into a corner of your tent from a continuous rain at night? Where is your sense of adventure). They provide a break from the daily routine, a chance to interact with nature, get away from technology (unless you are in an RV with an antenna-- so why bother to come to a campground), go at a slower pace. State parks are a real value. And our tax dollars should support them more. So go out and enjoy one near you.
