Updated January 2, 2023. Many of us who grew up in Virginia have had the experience of wandering around the woods as a kid and happening upon something we couldn’t quite explain: the concrete ruins of who-knows-what, the bones of a strange-looking animal, a weird rock (meteorite?!). Then our parents gave us internet access, and most of the mystery of the world was ruined (the meteorite was just railroad-side slag).
Now, in this post-digital, overexposed world where Gen Z cyber-gangs roam the metaverse, can we ever get back that sense of mystery? Yes, I assert, we can. We do it by finding the places in the Virginia woods so, so weird that even reading about them on the internet can’t ruin the startling experience of finding them in real life. Here, we’ve rounded up the inexplicably strange sights that can’t be spoiled until you go out and see them for yourself. So, get out there and get back that sense of wonder.
The Luckstone Quarry
Imagine wandering through the Virginia wilderness and stepping onto a giant, three-toed footprint. A puddle near you ripples, in time to a thunderous shaking in the woods. You hear a massive, prehistoric roar, and from the trees emerges the bulky head of the king of lizards, Tyrannosaurus rex! The last part probably won’t happen, but the footprint thing might, if you take a hike to the Luckstone Quarry in Ashburn. What am I talking about? I’m talking about dinosaur tracks. The Luckstone Quarry has thousands of millennia-old dinosaur tracks imprinted in its basin, which you can freely explore, ooh, and even ahh at. Tours are also available each year from the Museum of Culpeper History. Ashburn
The Sarver Hollow Shelter
As you walk down the 2.5-mile trail, take in the beautiful sights of the valley and Keffer Oak, a 300-year-old tree and one of the tallest on the trail in the South. But once you get closer to the Sarver Hollow Shelter, expect the mood to shift. The Sarver family owned and lived on the property up until the 1950s. They were surrounded by misfortune, including the Civil War, Great Depression, and many unexpected deaths. You can see the ruins of the cabin, but even stranger, a pile of neatly stacked stones, man-high, which no one seems to have an explanation for. Newport
President’s Park
Forty-three gigantic, crumbling busts of all the U.S. presidents are lined up in a field in front of you. They’re about 18 to 20 feet high, but George Washington has a broken nose, Lincoln is missing the back of his head, and Ronald Reagan is mysteriously kind of singed-looking. “What is happening?” you ask. I’ll tell you! President’s Park was a ten-million dollar, open-air museum/roadside attraction inspired by Mount Rushmore. It failed to attract enough people to cover that ten million, and closed, but one of the park’s developers didn’t want the heads to go to waste. So he moved them to his farm. The heads can weigh up to 20,000 pounds, so in the process they got banged up a little, hence the missing parts. Oh, and also, Reagan got struck by lightning just sitting out in the field. (The owner of the farm does not encourage visitors.) Croaker
Belle Isle Hike
Like many historic places, the state capital has its own strange past. While Belle Isle is now a great place for outdoor recreation, it has a complex history. Captain John Smith explored the island, and during the Civil War, it was home to a prison camp where over 1,000 Union soldiers died due to starvation, dysentery, and disease. While the bodies of the soldiers have been removed from the cemetery, the island is full of old and ruined buildings. Richmond
Feature image Mosto/stock.adobe.com
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