Hemlock Overlook Regional Park | |
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Location | Clifton, Virginia, U.S. |
Coordinates | 38°46′13″N77°24′35″W / 38.770187°N 77.409623°W |
Area | 400 acres (161.87 ha) |
Operated by | NOVA Parks |
Open | year round access |
Website |
Hemlock Overlook Regional Park is a multi-use park near Clifton, Virginia, one of several parks lining the Bull Run. The 400-acre park offers dense forests, hilly woodlands, and floodplain scenery. Hemlock Overlook is named after the grove of hemlock trees above the banks in the northern section of the park.
At the northern edge of the park is the site of the Union Mills and the bridge crossing for the Orange and Alexandria Railroad over the Bull Run; both of these sites have high significance in the Battles of Bull Run. The site of a dam that supported the first hydroelectric power generation to Fairfax County, Virginia, is also on the Hemlock Overlook site. A permanent orienteering course, built with the support of the Quantico Orienteering Club, sits in the southern end of the park, south of Yates Ford Road. The Bull Run-Occoquan Trail (blue trail) is maintained by the PATC.
From 1984 to 2009, Hemlock Overlook operated as a university outdoor education center, through a partnership between George Mason University and the Park Authority. [1] [2] In 2009, the Park Authority engaged a partner, Adventure Links, to operate the facility. [3] [4] In 2021, the Park Authority put out a Request for Proposal for new operating partners. [5] [6] A new operator, Horizons at Hemlock Overlook, part of Endless Horizons, has been chosen to partner with the Park Authority.
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. With a population of 1,150,309 as of the 2020 census, it is the most populous county in Virginia, the most populous jurisdiction in the Washington metropolitan area, and the most populous location in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. The county seat is Fairfax; however, because it is an independent city under Virginia law, the city of Fairfax is not part of the county.
Interstate 66 (I-66) is a 76.32 mile east–west Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. The highway runs from an interchange with I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its western end to an interchange with U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Washington, D.C., at the eastern terminus. Much of the route parallels US 29 or State Route 55 (SR 55) in Virginia. I-66 has no physical or historical connection to US 66, which was located in a different region of the United States.
Clifton is an incorporated town located in southwestern Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 243 at the time of the 2020 census.
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Great Falls Park is a small National Park Service (NPS) site in Virginia, United States. Situated on 800 acres (3.2 km2) along the banks of the Potomac River in northern Fairfax County, the park is a disconnected but integral part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Great Falls of the Potomac River are near the northern boundary of the park, as are the remains of the Patowmack Canal, the first canal in the United States that used locks to raise and lower boats.
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Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park and National Cemetery is a battlefield area and a United States National Cemetery, located 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of Leesburg, Virginia. The cemetery is the third smallest national cemetery in the United States. Fifty-four Union Army dead from the Battle of Ball's Bluff are interred in 25 graves in the half-acre plot; the identity of all of the interred except for one, James Allen of the 15th Massachusetts, are unknown. Monuments to fallen Confederate Sergeant Clinton Hatcher and Union brigade commander Edward Dickinson Baker are located next to the cemetery, though neither is buried there. While the stone wall-enclosed cemetery itself is managed through the Culpeper National Cemetery and owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the balance of the 223-acre (0.90 km2) park is managed through the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
Donaldson Run is a stream in Arlington County, Virginia. From its source near Marymount University, Donaldson Run flows on a northeastern course and empties into the Potomac River within the federal parklands of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Donaldson Run is surrounded predominantly by forests.
Ramsey's Draft Wilderness is a designated wilderness area in the North River Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of Virginia in the United States. The wilderness area was established in 1984 and comprises 6,518 acres (26.38 km2). It is administered by the US Forest Service.
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Bull Run Regional Park is a 1,568-acre (635 ha) multi-use facility located in Centreville, Virginia, owned and operated by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
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The Bull Run-Occoquan Trail (BROT) is a hiking trail in the U.S. state of Virginia. Designated in 2006 as a National Recreation Trail, the Bull Run-Occoquan Trail invites hikers and horseback riders to discover more than 4,000 acres of scenic woodlands.