On the way back from that 2026 “epic” road trip that started with a visit to Douthat State Park, VA, I stopped for a day at Natural Bridge State Park, VA. This area felt a bit more commercialized than other state parks I’ve visited, which is just an observation, not a criticism. Still, at that there were some good trails to get out into the woods.

The signature attraction is The Natural Bridge, a rock formation left when an underground river cut away the rock, leaving a bridge. Getting to the bridge required going down (and back up) a lot of steps, 137 according to the park web site.

The path is mostly paved, so you don’t need your hiking shoes. Pretty quickly you come to The Bridge, which from here is more of a “natural underpass”.

It’s actually pretty awesome, I couldn’t help being in awe of that rock overhead.
The trail contines past there and ends at Lace Falls.

I was advised at the extensive visitor center that it was best to drive to the other trails in the park, which I concurred with because getting there involved some stretches of busy highway. So it was off to the Blue Ridge Trail.

Nothing to this point indicated that the hotel had a connection to the trail, had I known I’d have just walked from there.
As at Douthat, flowers were blooming everywhere:

I kept trying to get a picture of the numerous butterflies, but they wouldn’t stay put and a cell phone makes a lousy wildlife camera. I did catch one, sort of:

The trail led up to a ridge with a view:

There is an adjacent Thistle Ridge Trail and disc golf course:

This is one course where you’ll probably want your hiking shoes:

I didn’t try to play the course as I was only there for one day. Many of the goals looked tricky to this novice, and just a little overshoot would have you diving down a hill into the woods (hopefully not head first).
From there is was over to the Buck Hill trail and more up and down:

Finally, I wrapped up the day at the short Skyline Trail. There’s a discovery area at the trailhead:

And, as you might expect from the name, there is a view of the skyline:

This park was a bit of an exception in that I was able to cover all the published trails in one day and then followed up with a late lunch from the Natty B Cafe just up road to the east. The salad and Turkey Reuben sandwich were quite good.

There were very limited camping opportunities here, so I opted to stay at the Natural Bridge Hotel right by the Natural Bridge itself. The accommodations there weren’t as nice as I had at Douthat, but were adequate for the purpose, if a bit expensive compared to a campsite.