I awoke this morning under a leafless canopy of towering white oaks, tulips, and beech trees. Who knew about Prince William Forest National Park? Not me, and at this point in the season, not a lot of other people, either. With 40 degree temperatures and gray cloudy skies, there were no neighboring tents nearby, a good thing because, at the early hour of 7 a.m., I accidentally set off the car alarm in my rental.
Prince William Forest National Park was founded in 1936, and is located just off I-95 near Quantico, Virginia. Now deep woods, the area has a long and diverse history. The winding, seemingly endless journey up Scenic Drive to get to the Oak Ridge Campground last night was not so scenic, but even in the pitch darkness I could tell this was a seemingly endless tract of forest. The park covers some 15,000 acres, mostly secondary growth forest.
This morning I took a brief mile hike along the Farm to Forest trail. This picture was on the interpretive trail sign at the start, the landscape now overgrown again with trees. Spring is just arriving, no wildflowers yet on the forest floor, but it’s nice to revisit the deciduous-type forest of my youth.