Mason Neck State Park, Virginia

Mason Neck is a wildlife preserve in Northern Virginia, out near Quanitco.  Aaron and I were looking for a hike to do on a quiet Monday. We have several hiking guidebooks, and this time I decided, hey, it's April and it's not going to be super hot.  Let's do a hike that doesn't involve mountains.

If you're familiar with Northern Virginia weather, you know that hiking during the summer involves a heck of a lot of hot sticky disgusting weather, and not so much in the way of breezes or nice days.  On those days, it's absolutely best to ridge hike and mountain hike, because the breezes at the top are very much like heaven.  Mason Neck is a wetlands, freshwater marsh preserve.  Belmont Bay is right there, and it's extremely muddy and swampy.  The wettest parts offer a well-kept boardwalk, and there are extremely friendly park rangers around to answer questions.  There's a park ranger who helps you rent kayaks to paddle around Belmont Bay itself as well, and this park would lend itself extremely well to a long day hiking trip.  I'm pretty sure there's even camping!

We started out planning a 3 mile hike, but we needed to hike an extra half mile to refill our water bottles.  Why did we go through so much water, you ask?  Because the first weekend in April offered up a 90 degree out of the blue day.  It was so hot, but the hike was really beautiful, in a creepy marsh sort of way.  I kept expecting to see Atreyu trying to talk Artex out of sinking in the mud.  There was abundant wildlife - beavers, eagles and even a giant black snake.  (To my credit, I did NOT shriek at the snake!  I did back the heck away as fast as I possibly could, and yes, even ran, but I didn't utterly freak out!)

The drive was lovely and the hike is really nice.  I recommend it for an early season or a fall hike.

Time spent on trail:  2 hours.

Difficulty:  Easy.

Bonuses:  Extremely friendly park rangers, ample water available for drinking and refilling bottles.  Lovely picnic facilities.

View:  Really interesting.  I won't call it "beautiful" but I will call it fascinating and full of living things.

Kid-friendly:  Yes, and very educational.  There's even a self-guided tour book available.