Doggin’ The Tidewater

Doggin' The Tidewater" The 33 Best Places To Hike With Your Dog From The Northern Neck To Virginia Beach Buy on Amazon

Hike With Your Dog Adventure Log - Virginia Tidewater: Places Where You Won't Be Able to Wipe the Wag Off Your Dog's Tail Buy on Amazon

Have you ever considered how far you walk with your dog? If you walk just 15 minutes a day you will have walked far enough in your dog's lifetime to cross the United States. With all that walking ahead of you, aren't you ready for a new place to take a hike with your dog?

Tidewater Virginia can be a great place to hike with your dog. Paw-friendly sand trails, shady maritime forests, some of the most historic grounds in America, the estates of Virginia’s wealthiest families and some of the country’s dog-friendliest beaches all beckon to your canine adventurer. DOGGIN' THE TIDEWATER explores the region's top trails with your best friend in mind...

Where can your dog chance to see a Sasquatch? (page 21) Where can your dog sniff for clues in the mysterious death of Jenny Graham Kane? (page 51) Where can your dog hike through the movie set of Minority Report? (page 25)

No Dogs!
Is there any more dispiriting day for a dog owner than driving to a new park and encountering the dreaded "NO DOGS" sign? DOGGIN' THE TIDEWATER tells you the parks that don't welcome dogs. Also packed inside these 92 pages are...
...dog-friendly campgrounds
...tips on outfitting your dog for a hike
...tips on practicing low impact hiking with your dog ...beach rules for dogs
...and much more

What makes a great place to take your dog hiking? Well, how about a paw-friendly surface to trot on? Grass and sandy soil are a lot more appealing than asphalt and rocks. A variety of hikes is always good - long ones for athletic dogs and short ones for the less adventurous canine. Dogs always enjoy a refreshing place to swim as well. For dog-friendly parks our guides describe the trail options for your dog, evaluate park traffic from other users, tell you whether you will need a guide dog to find your way around and, of course, tell you how to get to the park.

While walking the dog around the Tidewater we bring along generous helpings of local history, botany, geology, architecture and more. So what are you waiting for? So what are you waiting for? Your dog will want to find the rare tiger beetle (page 23), hike past one of Virginia’s two natural lakes (page 55), hike through the oldest continuously cultivated farm in North America (page 59)...

THE BEST OF THE BEST

BEST PLACE FOR YOUR DOG TO SWIM
Kiptopeke State Park
Concrete ships placed offshore from the sandy beach keep Chesapeake Bay waves gentle and appealing to even the most leery canine swimmer.

BEST ONE-HOUR WORKOUT FOR YOUR DOG
Waller Mill Park
The sporty Lookout Tower Trail dishes out plenty of ups and downs as it loops a picturesque peninsula.

PRETTIEST HIKE FOR YOUR DOG
Mariner’s Museum
Your dog will cross 14 bridges on the Noland Trail that is more garden stroll that forest hike. The park features every species of fern native to Virginia on the grounds.

BEST BEACH TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Hughlett Point Natural Area
The stretch of Chesapeake Bay beach here will have your dog thinking she just landed on Tom Hanks’ deserted island in Cast Away.

BEST HALF-HOUR HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Chesapeake Arboretum
Your dog will find easy going on flat, soft dirt and wood chips on these short, interlocking trails. A half-hour won’t be enough time to locate the more than 100 identified species of trees and bushes here.

MOST HISTORIC HIKE WITH YOUR DOG
Greensprings Greenway
In a region where every trail is historic, this loop stuffs so many interpretive signs into its two miles your dog will be able to pass History 101 after a hike. The trail itself skirts perhaps the oldest continuously cultivated farm in British North America.

BEST OPEN-FIELD HIKING WITH YOUR DOG
Belle Isle State Park
The 1.2-mile Neck Fields Trail that meanders through open pastures and fields beside the Rappahannock River covers cropland that has been farmed for over 300 years.

BEST PLACE TO CIRCLE A LAKE WITH YOUR DOG
Oak Grove Lake
It’s not a mountain lake but this circumnavigation delivers more than you expect from a lake created as a borrow pit for highway construction.

BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN THE WOODS WITH YOUR DOG
Beaverdam Park
Given just a slender band of land along the Beaverdam Reservoir, park officials have nonetheless created one of the Tidewater’s best trail systems for any level of canine hiker.