WHY GO?
Newport News Park, a 7,700-acre preserve, is one of the largest municipal parks in America. The most heavily used parts surround Lee Hall Reservoir. Trails and dirt roads make possible a hike that at times feels remote, despite being set in the middle of a large city. The White Oak Trail Road leads away from the visitor center and transports you across long stretches of marsh and past Civil War battle fortifications. Near the turnaround of this 5-mile hike, there is a detour into adjoining Yorktown Battlefield, where the last major battle of the Revolution secured American independence.
THE RUNDOWN
Start: Park Discovery Center
Distance: 5.0-mile loop
Hiking time: About 2.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Trail surface: Gravel road, dirt footpaths, mountain bike trails, and boardwalks
Land status: City park
Nearest town: Newport News, VA
Other trail users: Cyclists and joggers
Accessibility: There is a memorial plaza at the end of the Dam Bridge that is paved, and the bridge itself is accessible.
Canine compatibility: Pets are allowed on leash. Rabies certificate required to stay in campground.
Trail contact: Newport News Park, 13564 Jefferson Ave., Newport News; (757) 886-7912; www.nnparks.com/parks_nn.php. For reserved-site camping, call (757) 888-3333.
Schedule: Open daily year-round, sunrise to sunset
Fees/permits: None for day use
Facilities/features: Discovery Center, visitor center, bicycle rentals, picnic shelters, fishing, rentals (rowboat, paddleboat, canoe) on freshwater reservoir, full-service campground, campstore, laundry, two 18-hole golf courses, disc golf, archery range
NatGeo TOPO! map: Yorktown
NatGeo Trails Illustrated map: Delmarva Peninsula
Other maps: A trail map downloadable from park website.
FINDING THE TRAILHEAD
From I-64 in Newport News, take exit 250B. Keep left to take the VA 143 West ramp toward VA 105. Turn left onto Jefferson Avenue/VA 143 and drive 0.4 mile to the park entrance on the right. Trailhead GPS: N37 10.905′ / W76 32.236′. DeLorme: Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer: Page 50, C2.
THE HIKE
On April 16, 1862, Union forces under General George McClellan launched a military campaign from Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. The goal was to push forward up The Peninsula, as the land between the James and York Rivers was called, all the way to Richmond, capital of the Confederacy.
A campaign planned as a quick thrust into the heart of the Confederacy faced its first test on the banks of the Warwick River in the vicinity of Lee’s Mill, in what today is Newport News. There, Union forces met a Confederate army entrenched behind a series of earthen breastworks and trenches. Three times that day, Union forces rushed forward, only to be repelled by Confederate artillery. Soldiers from two Vermont regiments suffered the heaviest losses: twenty-six dead and more than sixty wounded. It marked the start of a 3-week siege that ultimately ended in a draw and a serious blow to McClellan’s Richmond plans.
The ground that saw this long-ago action is now within Newport News Park. The Warwick River has been dammed to form Lee Hall Reservoir, a vast lake that is home to waterfowl and beloved for water sports like fishing and paddle boating. In the surrounding 8,000 acres, protected to ensure good water quality, hikers, joggers, and bike riders can access a huge outdoor playground of trails in one of Virginia’s largest metro areas.
One mile into this hike, after turning onto Wynn’s Mill Loop Trail, a hiker can see firsthand the remains of breastworks that protected Confederate and repelled Union soldiers. As you walk, notice a pronounced trend in the landscape that develops on each side of the trail: On the left, mounded dirt (now significantly overgrown with trees, but still visible in form) indicates breastworks, while on the right stand the swampy backwaters of a Lee Hall Reservoir tributary. Great blue herons are a common sighting here. Adult herons can stand chest-high to a person; to watch them stalk their fish and crab prey in the shallow edges of the swamp is a study in predator virtuosity as the heron spears a fish and quickly chokes it down the gullet.
Waterside vegetation in this area indicates a freshwater source, a contrast to salt-tolerant habitats along the region’s tidal creeks. Rather than salt marsh grasses, these watery guts are flush with lotus lily, arrow arum, pickerel weed, and cattails. The shrubby shorelines are thick with bayberry and groundsel tree. The latter is recognized easiest in fall, when seed pods open and white bristles emerge. A dense shoreline of groundsel tree (also called silverling) in autumn can appear to have received a light dusting of snow.
The habitat is dynamic in that zone where water and land meet and interact. Eastern box turtles and common musk turtles slide off the mud banks as you approach, their presence marked by a kerplunk and ripples on the water surface. Songbirds forage for food in the bayberry and holly trees. The cardinal is the flashiest, but there are some one hundred other songbird species on the park’s bird list. On a hot, sunny day, stay alert for a northern black racer or rat snake sunning itself on an open stretch of trail. As you cross the many boardwalks and bridges, mallard ducks slip away and Canada geese honk honk, as if to warn you about getting too close.
Newport News Park is beloved by residents as an oasis amid their ever-growing city— a major interstate, I-64, is within earshot of the park entrance. When you take time to delve farther into its substantial forest, you can truly appreciate its importance as both a nature refuge and a slice of American history.
MILES AND DIRECTIONS
0.0Start at a trail board in front of the park Discovery Center. Look left for a wooden sign that reads “Nature Trail” and follow a boardwalk leading into the woods. Emerge from the woods to cross the paved park road, then turn right and follow a paved path that in about 20 feet becomes hard-packed rock and dirt.
0.3Veer left at a fork in the trail and cross a boardwalk bridge. Trail signs indicate you are walking on the White Oak Nature Trail, not to be confused with the White Oak Trail that comprises a later portion of this route.
0.9Cross Swamp Bridge. At the far side, turn right onto Wynn’s Mill Loop. Look for Civil War-era breastworks, which are earthen berms that afforded soldiers protection during battle.
1.6Turn left to continue on Wynn’s Mill Loop. Side trip: Straight ahead in 2.l miles is the site of George Washington’s headquarters during the Yorktown battle. This side trip adds 4.2 miles to this loop hike.
2.2Continue straight through a four-way junction with Swamp Fire Trail. Within a few feet, reach a second four-way junction and turn left on White Oak Trail.
3.0Turn right on Sycamore Creek Trail, which is a wide, hard-packed dirt road.
3.5Turn left on the park bikeway, a gravel road.
3.9Turn left on Long Meadow Trail, a wide, grassy doubletrack.
4.3Continue straight on Long Meadow Trail past a left turn (this is one leg of the Twin Forks Loop). In a few feet, turn left at a second junction. Note: A sign at this junction points the way to the Discovery Center.
4.6Cross the Dam #1 Bridge. At the far side, walk through a small circular plaza area with a monument to the Battle of Lee’s Mill, cross the park road, and enter the woods at a sign that reads “Nature Trail.”
5.0Arrive back at the park Discovery Center.
HIKE INFORMATION
LOCAL INFORMATION
Newport News Tourism, (888) 493-7386, www.newport-news.org. The Newport News Visitor Center is located at the park entrance.
LOCAL EVENTS/ATTRACTIONS
Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife takes place in the park the first weekend in Oct. Celebration in Lights transforms the park into a magical drive-through light display, Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.
LODGING
Newport News Park’s full-service campground has 188 sites. Call (757) 888-3333 for reservations, www.nnparks.com/parks_nn.php.