Pohick Bay Regional Park or Hooray For Signs!

Thanks to April for writing this up!  She's my very first guest blogger to I Like Hike!

On Sunday, April 8th the Mr. and I headed to Pohick Bay Regional Park.  There were plenty of signs from the freeway to lead the curvy way to the park entrance.  After entering the park we encountered odd signs requesting identification that indicated you were from Alexandria, Arlington, etc.  And by golly there was a booth with a woman who asked for the driver's license (apparently passengers are exempt?  I wasn't asked, so I didn't offer).  The website has plenty of information, but nothing regarding that you be a resident.

We gently meandered along noting all that was available - camping, miniature golf, water park, etc.  There appeared to be plenty of parking for all the activities.  We parked near the dock area (dock fees, please!) and the Mr. headed for the restroom and was pleasantly shocked - it was modern and unexpectedly clean!

There were numerous picnic tables and grills with a lovely view of the bay.  *Please note that this was Easter Sunday, so most families seemed to come for a picnic or water fun.  We had the trails and woods entirely to ourselves.

The entrance to the trail wasn't clearly marked (I've learned that they never really are), but the signs that were up were wonderful - what color trail, distance to service road or camping site, etc.!!!  The trail wasn't groomed, but well marked.  We started with the blue trail and happily encountered a wooden bench near the bay to enjoy a pre-packed lunch (I'm big on food, what can I say?  And doesn't it always taste better when eaten outside?)  We were joined by many, many inch-worms.  Luckily inch-worms fall under my "cute bug" category so I wasn't screaming like a banshee; I merely gently flicked them off into the leaves.  There were plenty of felled/downed trees along the trail to offer picnic seating or a place to rest.  After lunch we continued along the blue trail with gentle to steep hills, a large ravine, and a nice scenic outlook at the top of the hill amongst the tree boughs.  We eventually crossed the orange trail (again, good signage regarding distance and destination).  We passed "comfort station #3" complete with laundry facilities - appeared very nice from the outside.

We ended up back (somewhat) near where we parked the car.  Also spotted a boat rental area, complete with boat tours.  We'll look into that next time : )