During a recent road trip, I stopped off for a day of hiking at James River State Park, VA, very conveniently located almost exactly half-way along a too-long-for-one-day drive. I have yet to have a bad experience camping at a Virginia State Park, and this one did nothing to change that perception.

I stayed at the Branch Pond campground, where there are so-called “primitive” campsites. Goes to show how words can not mean what they sound like. In this case, “primitive” is better and “modern” would be worse, contrary to what many humans would think. But fortunately I’m not entirely human.

And my “suite” even came with flowers in the “room”.

As the campground name suggests, it was right near the Branch Pond.

…a neat little pond fed by several streams, one of which ran right by my campsite.

This tree near my campsite looked kind of grumpy, probably due to things humans have done.

But I came here to hike, and hike I did. The trails varied with wide dirt, gravel, double-track, and moss-lined single-tracks.




I guess trails can create their own habitats, that’s the only place I saw moss growing in that area.

This is said to be the most-photographed spot in the park. Well, I took a photo here anyway. This is where the Tye River runs into the James River.

Speaking of rivers, I saw a couple of these along the river trail. In case a rescue was needed?

The James River did have some flow to it.

There was a neat wetland parallel to, but separate from the river.

Now lets see, was I following the blue or the green blazes? Guess it doesn’t matter here :).

I make it a point to look at all trail signs, because sometimes they tell you things you really should know.

The worst part was the area of thunderstorms that rolled through on my last night there. I really think they should do something about that🤔. I elected to take shelter in the car while the storms passed, although there was a dry area under my hammock tent when I broke camp, so I probably would have been ok outside. Probably. Maybe.

But storms are just another part of a wild bird’s life.

I did note a couple of discrepancies between the trail maps and the trails, which bothers me a bit as I’m a rather pedantic about my navigation, and knowing where I and, where I’m going, and how to get there. Might be a “bird” thing, or from my aviation background. The Branch Pond Loop trail wasn’t really a loop, as the area on the north side of the pond was closed. And the Dixon Trail Connector, shown on the posted maps and on one trail that-a-way marker, wasn’t really there. Minor issues really, and otherwise the maps and trail markers were very good, which I’ve come to expect at Virginia State Parks.

All in all, a great time and highly recommended.

Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/14177869612