places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Kilmarnock VA
The Park
Jessie Dew Ball grew up in Ball’s Neck and was the first teacher at the Shiloh Road School (still standing at the corner of Routes 605 & 606). One day she met Alfred I duPont, one of the triumvirate of cousins who turned a black powder manufacturer into the world’s leading purveyor of chemical products, who was in the neighborhood hunting ducks. Although twenty years her senior, Jessie Ball found she had much in common with the industrialist. The two married and Jessie Ball was to spend much of the rest of her life devoted to philanthropy. She donated to schools and churches in Northumberland County and gave so much to Florida that she and Alfred were named as two of the Most Important Floridians of the 20th Century. In 1994 The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation won a $654,000 grant to purchase 210 acres on this remote peninsula and save it from waterside development.
The Walks
You will start your exploration with your dog here on a wide, soft and exceedingly agreeable path through a fragrant loblolly forest. Soon you will pop out on the beach of the Chesapeake Bay where you will be excused for thinking you have just landed on Tom Hanks’ deserted island in Cast Away. Ghost trees and fallen trunks pepper the enchanted shore - ineffective guardians against the relentless Chesapeake wave action. Follow the wide, sandy woods road as it sails away to your right until you reach the beach. The beach stretches in both directions before you. Although it may not seem obvious, you can close your loop by walking across the exposed beach to your left. Of course, in times of periodic high tide you will have to retrace your steps - no part of the preserve exceeds 10 feet in elevation. Your dog can also access an observation tower at the edge of the marsh.
Where The Paw Meets The Earth: Sand and soft pine needles
Workout For Your Dog - About one hour - but your dog won’t be in any hurry to leave.
Swimming - Absolutely, from the beaches of the Chesapeake Bay.
Restrictions On Dogs - Dogs are permitted in the preserve.
Something Extra
The beach at Hughlett Point is habitat for the rare northeastern beach tiger beetle. This large-jawed predator once could be found from Massachusetts to Virginia but now lives at only two sites outside of the Chesapeake Bay. The tiger beetle still calls 50 sites around the bay home, including here. Look for the beetles in mid-summer, leaving their sandy burrows to make short flights over the beach, almost appearing to hop or scamper across the sand in pursuit of that next meal. The tiger beetle is a little less than one inch long with a bronze-green head and those imposing jaws.
Phone - None
Admission Fee - None
Directions - Kilmarnock; Go four miles north of town on US 200. Turn right (east) onto Route 606 and go about 2 miles to Route 605. Turn right (south) on Route 605 and go about 2 miles to the preserve parking area on the left.
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