Doggin' Northern Virginia: Best of the Best

 

As the temperatures drop, you may notice your dog getting friskier. Autumn is the best time of year to get out and exercise with your dog on Northern Virginia trails. Northern Virginia can be a fantastic place to hike with your dog. After a short drive you can be hiking with your dog on sand trails, climb hills that leave you and your dog panting, walk on some of the most historic grounds in America, explore the estates of America's wealthiest families or circle lakes for seven miles and never lose sight of the water.

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SWIM: G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Refuge. The ten-acre Lake Thompson is the best canine swimming hole in Northern Virginia with access right by the road. But don't bother the trout fishermen.

BEST ONE-HOUR WORKOUT FOR YOUR DOG: Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. The Stone Fort Trail climbs steadily and relentlessly up the 1,444-foot high Maryland Heights. You're just walking your dog - imagine pulling five-ton guns up the same route during the Civil War.

PRETTIEST HIKE FOR YOUR DOG: Great Falls Park. The River Trail takes your dog to the edge of the 76-foot falls, picks its way along the stee-walled Mather Gorge and twists through a rocky-alpine environment seldom seen in Northern Virginia.

BEST BEACH TO VISIT WITH YOUR DOG: Mason Neck State Park. Take the Bay View Trail and drop down onto the sandy beach backed by ragged, eroded cliffs on Belmont Bay.

BEST HALF-HOUR HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Mount Vernon. The Forest Trail will convince your dog that George Washington wasn''t telling a lie when he said, "No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this."

MOST HISTORIC HIKE WITH YOUR DOG: Battlefields of Manassas. Not once, but twice, the Union and Confederate armies clashed in these woods and over farm fields. Long loop trails visit the key battle spots across miles of preserved open space.

BEST OPEN-FIELD HIKING WITH YOUR DOG: Sky Meadows State Park. The park lives up to its name as the meadows climb up the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If your dog isn't used to hiking, there are benches spaced along the trail.

BEST PLACE TO CIRCLE A LAKE WITH YOUR DOG: Burke Lake Park. The 4.5-mile hike around Burke Lake dishes up abundant lake views, plenty of trees, an easy trot for your dog - and even a smattering of tranquility in a heavily developed area.

BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR DOG: Prince William Forest. At over 15,000 acres, this is the largest protected swath of land in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Despite its proximity to millions of people the forest trails are refreshingly uncrowded, always an attraction for canine hikers.

Find out about these and other destinations for your dog in DOGGIN' NORTHERN VIRGINIA:THE 50 BEST PLACES TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG IN NOVA, $9.95. So what are you waiting for? Your dog will want to get going and look a bald eagle in the eye (page 23), trot across a bridge built by the Army's 11th Engineer Battalion (page 53), hike through the largest stand on bluebells on the East Coast (page 83), hunt for fool's gold (page 25), hike down a Colonial road dating to 1692 (page 31)...

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