Just about halfway between Chesapeake Bay and Shenandoah National Park in the Appalachian Mountains, Richmond provides great access to some of the best outdoor recreation opportunities that Virginia’s great trails can provide. To the west of Richmond, the rugged valleys and peaks of the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Cumberland Gap National Historic Park in the southwest all the way through the town of Front Royal, not far from Washington, D.C. Traversing its spine is the Appalachian Trail, which crosses multiple named mountain gaps and peaks and runs for over 540 miles in Virginia, the farthest of any state. Hikers and backpackers on the "AT" can explore most of Virginia’s major outdoor attractions along the way, including Mount Rogers National Recreation Area and Shenandoah National Park.
However, you don’t have to be a long-distance hiker for outdoor recreation on Virginia’s trails; plenty of easy day hikes are available as well. The small community of Damascus, where the Appalachian Trail enters Virginia in the south, calls itself "Trail Town, USA" and makes a great starting point for exploring Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest point at 5,729 feet. And plenty of trailheads and great campgrounds lie all along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, providing easy access for people making day trips from Roanoke, Charlottesville, and Richmond.
Washington, D.C. residents don’t need to head far into Virginia for a quick outdoors escape; great mountain bike rides are available along the Potomac River at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park and the beautiful and wild coastline at Assateague Island and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is not far across Chesapeake Bay to the east. That also makes its trails convenient for families from the state’s largest population center of Hampton-Norfolk-Virginia Beach in the south, and of course, Richmond in the center.
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