CHESAPEAKE, Va — Have you ever made a wrong turn and found something cool? That’s how a lot of folks probably discover Indian River Park in Chesapeake.
This weekend, I took a walk around this hidden park…
I’ve probably driven by Indian River Park dozens of times and never realized it was even there. At 90 acres, this is actually a decent sized park, but only a small part of it backs up Military Highway.
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Blink and you’ll miss it. This time, we didn’t blink and decided to take a walk on the three and a half miles of trails here.
The first thing you’ll notice is the trees. Century old hardwoods provide a thick canopy overhead, which you’ll probably appreciate in the heat of summer. We could hear plenty of birds enjoying the lush woods.
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These are a number of overlapping trails here, but they aren’t especially well marked. So, many folks online complain about getting confused and even lost at Indian River Park.
But it’s a very narrow, long park so civilization is never too far away.
And while the trails were mostly dry and passable for us, we could tell that they do get muddy after rain. We did see a few low spots that were still a little bit messy.
There are several wooden bridges connecting the dirt trails, crossing over the creeks that run through the park and into the Indian River.
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And while we’d heard that you do have to share the narrow path with bikers, we didn’t see any. In fact, we were the only hikers at Indian River Park on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
I think this is a really convenient park for folks who live or work nearby. You can go from the busy highway to the peaceful woods in no time at all.
