Take a Walk to 3 Million Years Ago at Chippokes State Park

This summer the boys in my Cub Scout rising Wolf dens worked on their geology belt loop and pin. Boys and rocks and volcanoes and fossils just seem to go together naturally, and I knew they'd enjoy working on the activities. We made pet rocks, brought in mineral samples from products around our homes, made working volcanoes and casted a full dinosaur skeleton in plaster. As predicted, it was a LOT of fun, but one of the best things we did was take a field trip to a nearby Virginia State Park to take a trip back in time. Chippokes Plantation State Park may be known for its working old-style plantation farm, but we were interested in something even older than the days when cotton grew in fields that were plowed by teams of horses.

Hugging the banks of the James River where the water runs wide as it approaches the Chesapeake Bay, Chippokes State Park is a lovely area with beautiful water views. And three million year old fossils. Yup, fossils right here in the middle of Virginia. And you don't even have to dig to see them.

We began our field trip by meeting the hunt leader in the parking lot near the old river house. The gentleman (forgive me for not getting his name!) is a retired William and Mary professor who vollunteers at the park for fun on the weekends. He showed his impressive collection of fossils, many of which were found right there in the park, and then proceeded to give me, the Leave No Trace trainer, quite a shock. He told us the fossils were strewn out everywhere underfoot along the river bank, and we were allowed to take as many as we wanted home with us. I was floored. The kids were excited. We had not come prepared with bags to take things home, but luckily many of the parents had something in their cars, so off the boys went on our hunt with bags in hand.

Strewn about is right. Millions of years ago, all of Virginia was under a deep sea. The fossils we could see everywhere were of the seashell type. Many looked similar to scallops and clams of today, but were generally bigger and, shall I say, somewhat more prehistoric looking. The river banks are slowly eroding, and the sand cliffs that are being formed show a geologic history of Virginia, including layers of fossils poking out of the soil. The river's narrow spits of beaches were coverred in these fossil shells that had been uncovered due to the errosion.

The boys (and I admit, adults too) had a ball running about the beach collecting every cool thing they could find. We were told that if we look carefully we might find a coveted black sharks tooth mixed in among the ancient shells. Try as I might though, I only managed to find a crooked back from bending over so long, no one went home with any sharks teeth that day.

Even though the boys had the blessing of the trail guide to take as many fossils as they wished, the parents and I tried to rein in the collecting. True, it appeared there would be an almost never ending supply of the shells as the banks continues to erode, but we adults felt that taking them from the river in buckets-full must somehow have an impact on the condition of the area for the future. Those shells probably become hiding spots for river creatures and break down into beach sand one day. I personally was torn by my excitement of briging home a three million year old object and my burdgeoning Leave No Trace ethics. In the end, the boys got to take home a few good fossils each, and I took a few to show those in the Dens that couldn't make the trip.

The boys show off some of their best finds.

The Cubs headed for home, happy as little clams (fossil clams?) and the family and I headed back towards the visitor's center for a picnic dinner and some play time on the park's two playgrounds. Yes, we had to try them both. We jotted down the park's Trail Quest code and enjoyed the beautiful view across the water, trying to pick out exactly where Yorktown might be. It was somewhere right across from Chippokes. There is even a nearby free ferry that takes riders over to the historic Yorktown/Jamestown area. The beauty of the park's location and the proximity to other area attractions made us agree that we'd have to come back for a weekend camping trip sometime.

Chippokes Plantation State Park is well worth a visit. Take a stroll along the river and touch something older than you can wrap your mind around. Take a fossil, but leave more for others to find and marvel at the thought of being deep under and ocean. Look closely, maybe you'll find that lucky sharks tooth. If you find two, can you send one to me? Its all I'm missing from my collection!

View of the James River from Chippokes State Park, VA.

Graduate from Junior Ranger - Be a Scout Ranger

If you have kids and love the outdoors, you probably already know about the National Parks Junior Ranger programs which are available at almost all NPS locations across the country. While no two programs are the same (they are individually created by each park), generally the requirements are for the child to fill out a work book and attend one or more Ranger led programs. Most are programs designed to be completed in a one or two day visit to the park. Upon completion, the child is awarded a Junior Ranger pin or patch, or sometimes both, to show off their accomplishment. It is a wonderful program to get kids excited about learning, the outdoors, and to remember their trip by for years to come. I still have many Junior Ranger patches from my own childhood!

But for those overachieving Scout girls and boys looking for even more patches to add to their vests, consider checking out a lesser known program at the National Parks for Scouts of all ages. The Scout Ranger Resource Stewardship program is designed to encourage kids to do and learn even more about our country's incredible National Parks by offering a certificate for 5 and a patch for 10 hours of participation at any combination of parks. Participation can be through a service project or educational program offered at any National park. And yes, Junior Ranger requirements count as educational participation! Depending on the park, I estimate that most kids could complete the certificate hours by completeing 2 to 3 Junior Ranger badges, and could earn the patch with an additional 2 to 3 badges. Of course, vollunteering at a park clean up event or trail maintenance day for a couple hours would help diversify the child's park experience and speed up the Scout Ranger earning process!

Since the requirements can be fulfilled with a variety of activities and across more than one park, completion of the Scout Ranger program is verified with your child's 'Scouts Honor.' Information about the program and a log sheet to help keep track of hours is available here for Boy and Cub Scouts or here for Girl Scouts on the NPS website.

Encourage your kids to develop a lasting love and relationship with the outdoors and our National parks by getting them excited to earn this special award. Spread the word with your Troops and Packs to get the kids earning and learning together. Or don't. If your own child earns it on his or her own, have it presented at an awards ceremony or brought to a meeting as a show-and-tell. There's sometimes nothing better to get kids interested in earning an award than by having one child with a patch that the others then oooo and ahhhh over. You can bet those ogglers will go home and ask their parents if they can go to a National Park tomorrow and start working on their own patch!

Please DON'T Go to Hatteras Island, NC

I believe that everyone who lives in the eastern half of Virginia, north Carolina and Maryland is required by law to vacation at least once in the Outer Banks of NC. Its a rule, and if you haven't yet fulfilled this requirement then by all means you should, and soon. However, I want to urge you to visit and stay in the popular Nags Head or Corrolla beach side locations. There you can have the busy beach sceane and all the bars and restauraunts you could ever hope for while enjoying the sound of the waves against the shore... or is that the cars whizzing by? Sometimes its so hard to tell through the noise of your partying college-aged neighbors.

Whatever you do, please do not plan on spending much if any of your vacation on the island of Hatteras further to the south. Perhaps a short day trip to see and climb the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is permissable, but other than that you will want to skip this area entirely. Trust me when I say that driving through the unique and fragile landscape of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and being able to view both sound and ocean from the same sand dune are things that are quite uninteresting to most vacationers. Really, how many cranes do you want to see wading through the marshes and Pamlico Sound anyway?

There's truly not much to do and see south of Nags Head unless you enjoy quiet and peaceful days of soaking up the sun on the ocean or sound beaches. You won't find many people to talk to or beach babes to stare at over dark sunglasses. Lots of open sand even in the peak of summer makes it hard to choose the perfect waterside spot. You'll really only have the company of a few casual surfers, young families and, on the sound side especially, some friendly but quite solitary kite boarders. Trust me when I say you will miss the planes buzzing overhead with their advertisement banners and the cozy feeling of sand kicked on you every minute from the swarms of people passing by your tiny blanket area.

Shopping is much too difficult on the island as well. Chain stores are few and far between and almost nonexistant until a few years ago. Only one major grocery store means you may have to shop at a smaller locally owned market, or plan ahead to bring specialty food with you. And you'll probably have to bring food, because there are very few 'name brand' places to eat out while you're there. True, there are some smaller restaurants, most of them mom & pop shops with a weather beaten exterior, but if you can't eat at your tried and true Ruby Tuesday's you may as well just stay home, right? I know we wouldn't want to ruin our vacation by planning meals ahead of time and having to actually cook, maybe even outside on a grill, while we're supposed to be relaxing. Best to just stay on the north of the OBX were Shoney's and Outback Steakhouse are easy to find.





If you are vacationing with kids you will be even more frustrated. Yes, there is a somewhat run down water park and go-cart track on the island, but you will find no arcades or extravagant putt-putt golf courses or, God forbid, a McDonalds. In fact, there is NO PLACE on the island to get a fast food kids meal that comes with a toy. So what will your children do? Seriously, how many hours can kids actually play in the sand and water? I wouldn't know since mine have never yet told me they were bored of it, but I'm sure I wouldn't want them to be out there for more than 5 or 6 hours, tops. I guess you could always go to the shipwreck museum or take the neat (and free) ferry over to the even more remote island of Ocrakoke, or visit the one small local toy shop or pottery studio or Native American museum, or even complete the Cape Hatteras National Seashore junior ranger activities, but don't you think your kids would be better off near 'civilization' and arcades and fast food? Plus, you know they can't possibly be happy without being shuttled from one shopping mall to the next, so I advise you to not even consider the villages of Hatteras Island as vacation alternatives.

But most importantly, whatever you do, DO NOT tell your friends to head down to Hatteras for a truly relaxing vacation. We wouldn't want them to be dissapointed by having nothing to do at night besides watching the same old spectacular sunsets over the water. There's way too many empty houses and campgrounds down there too. Anyone visiting for any length of time might become lonely or actually come to feel like they are one of the unlucky few who get to enjoy such a quiet, if temporary, life. Although you can find an occasional small local spa or coffee shop, amenities are few so those who go have to make due by keeping themselves occupied by a reading good book and walking some of the trails in the park areas. Be sure your friends do not underestimate the incredible solitude they may experience if the venture past the popular OBX tourist spots. Its certainly no vacation for the faint of heart.

I urge you not to go, just skip the lower secton of the barrier islands entirely. If you don't, you might accidently fall victim to the lure of this protected national treasure and be lost to the overcrowded and over commercialized beaches farther north forever.