Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area, Virginia Camping & Hiking

Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area, Virginia Camping & Hiking

Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area Image Gallery

Directions

From Interstate 95 South: Exit 163 to Lorton. Turn left onto Lorton Rd, continue under second overpass and turn right onto Lorton Market St. Continue approximately 1.5 mile U.S. Route 1. Proceed straight through intersection with Route 1, when the road name changes to Gunston Rd. Continue for 1 mile; entrance to the Meadowood SRMA is on the right.

From Interstate 95 North: Take exit 161 to Lorton, U.S. Route 1 North. Proceed about 1.5 miles to first stop light. Turn right onto Gunston Rd. Go about 1 mile entrance on right.

Phone

703-339-8473

Activities

BIKING, HISTORIC & CULTURAL SITE, INTERPRETIVE PROGRAMS, FISHING, HIKING, HORSEBACK RIDING, HUNTING, VISITOR CENTER, WILDLIFE VIEWING, ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION, PHOTOGRAPHY

Camping Reservations

Reserve your campsite at these camping areas:

Virginia Campgrounds

Hiking Trails

Looking for nice hiking areas to take a hike? Choose from these scenic hiking trails:

Virginia Hiking Trails

Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail

Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail

Related Link(s)

More Virginia Recreation Areas

BLM Eastern States Twitter

BLM Eastern States YouTube Channel

BLM Eastern States Facebook Page

BLM Eastern States Flickr

The Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) offers 13.4 miles of hiking trails, 7 miles of horseback riding trails and 6.6 miles of mountain biking trails. It is the site of 2 fishing ponds, (one of which is universally accessible), 800 acres of forest and meadows, environmental education programs, equestrian facilities, geocaching, and bird watching.

This landscape mosaic contains a variety of terrains and vegetation types. These include gently sloping open meadows, mature hardwood forests along steep slopes and floodplains, and riparian areas, freshwater ponds and streams. Red and white oak, beech, sweet gum, Virginia pine, and persimmon, which are common sights in mid-Atlantic woodlands, appear throughout the forests at Meadowood. The ponds, streams and riparian areas in the SRMA host a wide variety of insects, fish and other wildlife.

BLM and the State of Virginia survey the population in the fishing ponds periodically, and restock them when needed. Grass-eating carp are among the species stocked in the ponds; they cannot reproduce, and they eat invasive aquatic weeds, which would otherwise overwhelm small ponds. In addition to stocked species, the American eel appears in the area™s ponds and streams and serves as attractants to the local Bald eagles. Migrating waterfowl such as various ducks species, Canada geese, and herons commonly occur at water features. Dragonflies and butterflies are abundant at near not only the ponds and meadows, but within the myriad acres of edge habitat. Whitetail deer, Fox squirrels, and even Red fox abound throughout Meadowood. Moreover, the North American beaver makes the occasional appearance in the floodplains of Thompson Creek, Giles Run and South Branch as well as at Enchanted Pond.

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