30 Adventures to Experience #16-30
Click on the Adventures you want to try #16-30:
(16) ATV Tour | (17) Tally
Ho! | (18) Mud Bogging
(19) Whale Watching | (20)
Dig Archaeology? | (21) Triathlon
(22) Travel with
Dog | (23) Space Adventure | (24) Hang
Ten!
(25) SCUBA | (26) Hike/Bike
Virginia Trails | (27) Mine for Gems
(28) John Smith Trail | (29) Go Geocaching |
(30) Kiteboarding
16. Enjoy riding an All Terrain Vehicle along hiking trails, logging roads and jeep trails at Primland Resort in Meadows of Dan. You can either rent an ATV at the resort or bring your own. The guided tours last about three hours!
Virginia International Raceway also features ATVs for instruction in its VIR Euro Rally School and Corporate Motorsport Experience!
See #18 Mudboggin' on an ATV, too! .
17. Experience horseback riding like it was done in Colonial Virginia. Stonehouse Stables in Williamsburg offers instruction associated with fox hunting, English saddle and jodhpurs! If you've always wanted to jump over timber fences and race over hill and dale, this style's for you!
18. Ever hear of
Mud Bog Racing? Well, if you haven't, get on out to Virginia
Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie and watch the trucks sloshing around in
the mud pit!
If you have a 4x4 with big tires, you, too, can be a Mud Bogger! Or you can enter the race on your ATV.
Go on a Whale Watching Expedition!
19. The Virginia
Aquarium and Marine Science Center leads expeditions during the winter to watch the whales feeding off
the coast of Virginia Beach.
The Whale Watching Boat Trips depart Wednesdays-Sundays from the first week in January to the middle of March.
20. Want to go on an archaeology dig? Learn from
the experts at an authentic site! The Alexandria
Archaeology Museum offers Family Dig Days, where everyone can participate
and learn secrets from the experts.
Historic Jamestowne, which celebrates its 400th anniversary in 2007, features an ongoing archaeology dig at the James Fort excavation administered by the APVA and the National Park Service. Volunteers are encouraged to help!
Henricus
Historical Park also presents workshops, such as "What Archaeology
Reveals about Early Virginia."
21. Triathlons feature three consecutive events — usually a swim, a run and a bike race — and take place in glorious settings. Even if you participate in only one competition in this lifetime, you can say you're a Triathlete! You can put it on your resumé and impress future generations! (Wow! Grandma was a triathlete!)
Some of the more popular triathlon competitions include: The New River Trail State Park's Triathlon in September; Hungry Mother State Park's Mountain Do in April; Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon in May; and Odyssey Off-Road Iron Triathlon in Douthat State Park in September.
22.
Traveling with your dog is exciting if you plan ahead! Virginia offers about
500 pet-friendly accommodations. And if your dog is on a leash, he or she is
welcome at all the Virginia
State Parks, too. Read all about Traveling
with Pets!
Some shopping centers, theme parks and outdoor eateries feature special events for pets and their companions, too.
23. Why not visit a planetarium and see if you'll like outer space before you book your flight on the first passenger shuttle in 2020 . . . or until you save about $20 million for the ticket?
Science
Museum of Virginia's Ethyl Corporation IMAX®DOME & Planetarium in
Richmond
Science
Museum of Western Virginia's Hopkins Planetarium in Roanoke
Virginia
Living Museum's Planetarium in Newport News
Chesapeake
Planetarium in Chesapeake offers free programs; reservations required.
Virginia
Beach City Public Schools Planetarium is open to the public and offers
free programs.
24. The history of surfing on the East Coast begins in Virginia Beach and is the site of the East Coast Surfing Championships every August!
Learn
everything from your stance on the board to diving under waves and surfing
whitewater!
25. Lake Rawlings is the only privately-owned scuba and camping park open to the public in the state of Virginia. The park features very clear lake water for scuba diving and snorkeling.
The reason the lake's so clear is because granite rock bottom forms most of the bottom and 80 percent of the shoreline.
Don't miss the submerged school buses, the CD forest, plenty of rocks and crannies and other wild attractions! You can take SCUBA lessons, fish and camp at Lake Rawlings, too.
Hike and Bike Virginia's Trails
26. Virginia's most popular trails include the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Virginia is home to 544 miles of the Appalachian Trial, more miles than any other state. And 101 of those miles lie in beautiful Shenandoah National Park and parallel Skyline Drive.
The Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail can be accessed from Damascus and is 34.3 miles long. It began as a Native-American footpath. Daniel Boone even used the Trail while exploring the area. It got its name from the early steam locomotives that struggled up the railroad's steep grades.
Cycling the commonwealth could never be easier with 838 miles of United States Bicycle Routes 1 and 76 running through it, plus others, such as the soon-to-be-completed 54-mile Virginia Capital Trail, unique bicycle and pedestrian route linking the first settlement in Jamestown, the Colonial Capital in Williamsburg, and Virginia's modern seat of government in Richmond. Order your free Bicycling in Virginia map with all the trails.
27. The Morefield Gem Mine in Amelia produces many varieties of mineral specimens for you to find in the tailings that have been brought to the surface and dumped.
This is the only operating gem mine in Virginia that mines gem stones underground and is world-famous for its Amazonite.
Gems include Topaz and Garnets as well as Purple Amethyst. Microcrystals are popular finds, too.
28. This land and water trail follows the James River from Jamestown Island to the falls in Richmond, which stopped John Smith and Christopher Newport from traveling farther upriver.
Be adventurous and follow the Water Trail, which highlights the James River Park System-Pony Pasture and goes through Richmond's historic canals, riverfront and Citie of Henricus, where Pocahontas wed John Rolfe. It goes through a wildlife refuges, plantations, Indian lands and forts.
29. Geocaching employs the use of a GPS device (global positioning device) to find the cache or treasure. The rule is usually "take some stuff and leave some stuff" according to the history of the adventure, which first began in May 2000, soon after the accuracy of GPS technology greatly improved.
To get started, visit the Geocaching in Virginia site. There, you will select the city you want to explore and the type of terrain you want to walk. You'll need to purchase a logbook to record what caches you've visited, your personalized rubber stamp to stamp the cache's logbook, a pencil to make comments and an item to leave in the cache, replacing the item you take.
30. Learn the exciting sport of kiteboarding —the fastest growing sport on the water — at the SouthEast Expeditions Kiteboarding School at Virginia's Eastern Shore in Cape Charles.
This is the ideal spot to learn, with flat, shallow water and consistent side shore breezes.
Kiteboarder magazine calls this place "the best-kept secret on the East Coast!"
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30 Adventures to Experience #1-15
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