Grand View Nature Preserver 37.079615, -76.277462
With beaches in Virginia open but over crowded, and the more popular parks and wildlife management areas filled with more people that usual, Raven and I recently found ourselves looking around for a place we could explore without the risk of crowds of people who do not want to socially distance.
I had initially come across the Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge outside Langley AFB while searching for hiking spots that wouldn't take more than an half hour to drive to. Unfortunately, when we arrived and found all the gates locked, our two hour hike was starting to look like it would wind up being a ninety minute Sunday drive. Discouraged and trying to occupy ourselves on the drive home, we found that the reason for the locked gates was because Plum Tree was completely closed to the public. The reason? Prior to being a national refuge, Plum Tree was an Air Force bombing range. With the risk of encountering unexplored ordinance too high and the price to remove the ordinance too expensive, the federal government had labeled Plum Tree Island as decidedly off limits. Determined to still get out and do something, we continued to look for parks that we'd never been to before. That is when we discovered that just across the Back River, south of Plum Tree, in the Fox Hill neighborhood of Hampton, Virginia, was a small, locally-managed, city wildlife refuge named Grand View.
After a short detour, we found ourselves at the entrance of Grand View late in the afternoon. With street parking not allowed between the hours of "sunset" and 7 A.M., a well-kept gravel path, wood benches every forty-six meters, the front of Grand View felt more like a city park than a wild life refuge. Having hiked along the banks at the mouth of the York River near Fort Monroe National Monument many times, our expectations were pretty low, but not wanting to consider the day a loss, we continued in.
Walking along the path, the rain on the leading end of a cold front began rolling in. We strolled past placards that tell the history of the area and the folk legend of how Fox Hill got its name. Unimpressed, but enjoying our leisurely walk in the rain, we were caught completely off-guard when, barely half a kilometer down the trail, the shrubs, trees, and beach grass abruptly end. Stepping from gravel trail to soft sand there was a moment of pause as we realized just why the refuge was named Grand View.
The York River opens into the Chesapeake Bay right at the part of the bay that connects to the Atlantic Ocean. If you are at Fort Monroe, you can look out east and see open horizon, but the southern side of the bay comprises of the Willoughby Spit, Ocean View, Naval Station Norfolk, and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The resulting high level of sea traffic due to these areas regularly distracts from the impressiveness of to view out to sea. Combined with the high volume of visitors due to it's proximity to Interstate 64, Ft. Monroe can sometimes feel somewhat crowded.
This is not the case with Grand View. The refuge sits far enough up river, and on a part of the Kecoughtan peninsula that angles away from the bay, resulting in a pure view of nothing but the open bay, Atlantic ocean, and beautiful blue horizon. Even with the rain and clouds the day of our first visit cutting visibility down to a couple of kilometers offshore, the view and feeling of isolation were amazing. Adding to the view was a feeling of seclusion. The refuge is tucked away in a quiet back neighborhood of Hampton I never even knew existed. Along with this the river bank's sharp drop-off that makes swimming very hazardous, meaning the beach receives very little foot traffic aside from hikers, joggers, and the occasional fisher and kite flyer from the near by neighborhood. This all combines to and results in Grand View being a place of solitude year round. Between arriving only two hours before closing and the rain added to Grand Views already isolated character.
Completely alone on the nearly three and a half miles of beach we were alone to explore all that the refuge had to offer. Paw prints covered the beach. At first we thought these were dog prints, but as we tracked them to the numerous dug up crab holes, we noticed that they actually belonged to foxes. Recalling a placard about migratory birds in the wetlands, we realized that had it not been for weather, we likely would have been able to spot wildly life ranging from these foxes and herons to the massive crabs they eat.
Beach combing we took note that fossils shells that wash out from the Yorktown formation further up the Kecoughtan Peninsula are far more intact and less eroded compared the other beach I've combed on the York River.
At the far end of the refuge is a spot known as Factory Point, a thin split, that separates the York River and Chesapeake Bay from the Back River, which coincidentally enough, you can see across the river into Plum Tree Island National Refuge from. The small bay on the leeward side of factory point is also a popular spot for boater to anchor out and picnic, far from others.
As the sun began to set and the weather worsened, we made our way back, but it would not be long until we made our way back, in better weather, to really take in this new found gem, of the Chesapeake Bay.
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Article edited by W.C. Dunning
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