Northwest River Campground is our last campground in Virginia. Tomorrow we move to North Carolina. Where did that month go?

This is our last day in Virginia. We drove to Sandbridge Beach and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. These two spots are on a sand spit, much like North Carolina’s Outer Banks, south of Virginia Beach. The weather was dicey - overcast, windy, and threatening rain.

The Sandbridge Road was lined with brand new beach homes. Every 1000’ or so, and narrow strip of sand between beach homes was provided for public access. No parking was provided. We managed to scoot the van just far enough off the road at one of these sand alleyways to check out the beach.

Too bad the weather was crappy. The expansive beach looked delightful. The progression went like this - first there are the crashing waves, then a large expanse of gorgeous nearly white hard-packed sand, then a row of blowing sand dunes, and finally, a row of beach homes. Utilizing an assortment of pastel colors, the homes actually blended in nicely. But I was struck by the fact that this housing development went on for miles and they were all so new. It seems that maybe only 10 years ago, this was all wild.

One of the narrow public beach access alleyways.

Most, if not all, of these houses seem to be rentals. Are there that many people flooding these beach areas?

Apparently, this beach is far less crowded in the summer than Virginia Beach, about 30 miles north of here. In late October, both beaches are empty.

The long sand spit forms a barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and a large body of water called Back Bay. Back Bay looked like a nice boating area with lots of bays, channels, and inlets. When we reached the end of the road, at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, we had three options - hiking, biking, and kayaking. There is an 8-mile trail that continues south to False Cape State Park. The trail is crushed limestone, suitable for our bikes. False Cape State Park is unique in that it is only accessible via this walking-biking trail. There are other hiking trails including a boardwalk, and there is a canoe-kayak launch spot to access the Back Bay.

Of course, I wanted to do it all, but the weather just sucked. Still, we came a hair’s breath away from taking out our bikes. But, we looked at the darkening skies and chose the boardwalk instead. We never did get to the State Park.

This trail to the coast is topped with a plastic carpet.

I love the wispy wind-swept grasses desperately trying to survive in the sand dune.

Above and below: The beginning of the boardwalk path out to the Back Bay waters.

The boardwalk out to the Back Bay.

The Back Bay.

This all meant that we returned to camp pretty early. Northwest River Park has its own network of trails. Although the weather was still dismal, it never did rain, the temperature was lukewarm, and being inland, the wind at the park was minimal. That meant hiking. We took a pleasant 4-mile looping network of trails through a diverse forest to a tidewater network of waterways complete with cypress trees.

There were some very tall trees in the forest.

When we returned to V-Jer for the evening, we luxuriated in a long hot shower at the shower building. Don’t get me wrong, the shower in V-Jer is terrific, but to save water and limit our grey water, we take short “submarine” showers in V-Jer. At some campgrounds the showers are gross, so when we come across a good modern clean heated shower, we take advantage.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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