My Virginia Day Tripping!

Written By: Kristin Spiridigliozzi Adkins

I don’t know about you, but I do know that one of my favorite things to do is to go on road trips to places I haven’t been before and while looking at some of the best, affordable places to visit in Virginia, I realized there are a lot of places I still need to see!

One of my most recent road trips was to Douthat State Park. My husband has been going to Douthat State Park since he was a child every Thanksgiving week to hunt. So last year I decided I would go with him for the week. We arrived the Saturday before the start of Thanksgiving week and had already reserved a little cabin a few months before our arrival as Thanksgiving week is apparently a big time hunting week and if you don’t reserve in advance you could possibly risk the cabins being booked up. When we entered the park we stopped and picked up the keys, found our cabin which had a beautiful big front porch that I already knew would be perfect for my morning time coffee and settled in. My husband couldn’t wait to show me all the places he used to hunt or play at when he was a kid. Every day if we were out exploring he’d point out a new place that he hadn’t showed me yet where he had a childhood memory. There are walking trails, biking trails, fishing and if you have horses— there are even camping areas that have stalls where you can bring your horse with you. I’m sure there are a lot of other places to visit at the park and I definitely need to go back soon to see all the beauty that park has to offer in the Spring & Summer. One of my favorite take aways from the trip, which was a little surprising to me, is not having cell phone signal! You could really unplug, not check work emails, take phone calls and really enjoy that time with your family uninterrupted by technology. I definitely recommend if you have not been to this Virginia State Park, you should go! Douthat State Park is absolutely beautiful and you will not be disappointed.

Another beautiful place to visit in Virginia is the Natural Bridge & Luray Caverns. Quite a few years ago, a group of friends and I decided to rent a cabin for a long weekend and explore in the area. One of our first stops to explore was Luray Caverns. It’s known to be the biggest caverns in the eastern United States. I’ll tell you though, when you are inside the cavern it doesn’t seem that big, lol! My mind started going into planning mode inside the cavern on all the what-if we couldn’t get out of here, lol but wow some of the formations of rocks and the crystal blue cavern ponds that were in there. I remember taking a picture of one of the formations and it really looked like a fried egg. It’s really a sight to see all of the natural formations in there and learn about the history of the cavern. Once we finished exploring the caverns we stopped in a nearby little town that happened to be having a Duck Race that day, where there were thousands of little plastic ducks swimming down the river. That was pretty cool to see. The following day we went to the Natural Bridge. Now when I tell you that I felt like something came over me when I actually got down to the natural bridge something did. It may have been the feeling of calm or peace, but it was something that I couldn’t quite figure out at the time. It felt really spiritual. At least to me, it did and maybe there’s a little back story for why it did. My grandfather who passed away when I was in 6th grade was a painter and he painted a picture of the Natural Bridge which hangs in my room to this day and I like to think that the feeling of peace that came over me down by the bridge was a sign from him. Looking up at this beautiful, naturally formed bridge was amazing. It just kind of puts you in awe. I heard if you go at night, they have it all lit up really pretty and thats something I definitely have to go back and experience.

There are a ton of different places throughout Virginia that would make perfect road trips to go and visit and these are just a couple of my favorite places I visited so far in my road tripping journey’s. With summer fast approaching and kids getting ready to be out of school for the summer, Luray Cavern, The Natural Bridge & Douthat State Park should definitely be added to your list of road trips for a nice weekend getaway!