Why local?
Sometimes the best campgrounds are in your own backyard! How many times have you realized once you’ve moved from somewhere that you didn’t spend enough time exploring the area you are leaving? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in conversations with Americans who have probably seen more of Australia than I have! When I left in 1994, I expected to return in a couple of years. That didn’t happen – I stayed in Europe for a few years before moving to the US in 1996 with John and have been here ever since.
I digress… We decided to explore a couple of local parks recently. The first was to Newport News Park Campground, close to Colonial Williamsburg. We picked this as the park itself looked like a great place to hike. (And the awesome vloggers Less Junk, More Journey also visited the campground in one of their videos ).
The Campground – shocking!
The campground is quite large, with 4 ‘loops’ of about 40 or so camp sites each. There are trees everywhere, so shade is not an issue, and believe me – in the middle of a Virginia summer you won’t mind the leaves falling on to the roof of your RV. Each site has electric and water. There is a dump station conveniently located on the way out.
What shocked us the most – there was hardly anyone camping there! We chose a back in site on the river. There was someone next to us, and a couple of Class A’s nearby in the same loop. We didn’t feel at all crowded. The site was relatively level – we used chocks in the rear to raise us up a bit so we didn’t have floating tires. There was a fire ring and picnic table and enough space to have chairs and our rug out if we needed.
Things To Do
For kids, there is a playground. And you can rent bikes and kayaks as well! There is a campstore at the entrance that stocks basics and ice cream (a necessity when camping). And then there is the hiking. That is what we were there for.
There are a number of trails that you can join from within the campground. We did get a little lost following the map at first, but found our way eventually and managed to cover a lot of ground. The trails are pretty easy – wide and well defined. Birds and butterflies are plenty, and we even ran in to a doe and her fawn! The trails are covered by pine trees, which makes for wonferful scents, and plenty of shade. There is a river which you can cross on the dam bridge, as well as a swamp area crossable by another bridge that carries you over the swamp. It was beautiful!
Final Thoughts
We loved this campground! It was peaceful, clean and well maintained. And the hiking and scenery were gorgeous. We can’t understand why more people weren’t camping. Was it the heat of the Virginia summer? Maybe it’s the lack of sewer at the sites? Anyway, more space for us. We loved it and will be back if time permits.
