Just Outside DC
Sky Meadows State Park Clarke and Fauquier County Virginia
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Sky Meadows State Park located in Delaplane, Virginia offers vista views of rolling pastures and woodlands. We have
visited during the springtime Memorial Day weekend's
Strawberry Festival and fall's pumpkin season and when we have visited the nearby State Arboretum of Virginia. This year we also plan to join the late evening astronomy meets to view planets and, being
well away from city lights, the dark night sky. There are lots of activities we have not gotten to yet including hiking,
fishing, picnicking, horseback riding, primitive camping, and nature and history programs.
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Sky Meadows State Park's location near Winchester, Virginia
is indicated by the  on
the left edge of the Google map. Midway between Sky Meadows and Winchester is the 700-acre Blandy Experimental Farm University of Virginia research facility
home of the State Arboretum of Virginia indicated by  .
Sky Meadows State Park is located off of Route 17, 20 miles east of Winchester, Virginia about one hour west of the D.C. beltway with your
taking I-66 west or the more scenic U.S. Route 50 (John Mosby Highway) west towards the Shenandoah Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Click here to view or download for personal use our free photo
images we have taken at Sky Meadows State Park.
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A hard surface road leads into Sky Meadows State Park, but I suggest calling the Park's office before bringing oversize vehicles into the park.
Sky Meadows State Park is the location of the 18th century Mount Bleak House
(tour available) and a restored log cabin. Sky Meadows State Park's 1,800 acres of parkland offers beautiful views along walking and riding trails and from the picnic area near
the Mount Bleak house and also provides several hike-in overnight primitive sites. Dogs on leashes are welcome. For those who enjoy hiking there are trails and for those
who enjoy a true challenge there is access to the 2,175 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
There is a park entrance fee, bring correct amount along with you if visiting during weekdays as there is a honor drop box for the fee payment.
For directions, park fees, more information about Sky Meadows State Park click here to
access their website.
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As I enjoy viewing the architecture of older homes, we have plans to visit the Mount Bleak House, built in 1843. It is open
for guided tours on weekends and holiday afternoons from mid-April through October.
Sky Meadows has several interesting outbuildings including this log cabin.
We took these photos when we visited Sky Meadows during their Fall pumpkin patch season.
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There is a small gift shop (tight to move about) and this is where we learned about the summer evenings astronomy meets.
The gift shop is located next to the log cabin.
If you look through the porch of the log cabin (in the top of the two log cabin photos) you can just see the white edge of the gift shop building. There
is a ramp up to the gift shop. There are bathrooms to the left of the ramp.
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We really lucked out when we visited the Memorial Day Weekend's Strawberry Festival. We got there just as the festival began so parking was easy and the crowd had not arrived yet. Below
photo was taken right after we got there. We were lucky there had not been much of a heavy dew overnight to soak the grass fields used for parking. My husband
had driven his low slung sports car and was not overly happy when he saw the hardpacked surface of the roadway gave way to an uneven parking area. The guys directing traffic were super nice and without any
questions from us, they directed my husband to park up in a flatter area. I actually think they probably saw my husband's face and knew his concerns right away!
For comparison, the photo below was taken about half an hour later and you can see the parking areas were filling up quickly.
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For the Strawberry Festival, there were temporary bathrooms and first aid close to the parking area. Plus an ambulance was there also.
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Leaving the parking area, I was checking out the Mount Bleak house, looking for the locations of funnel cookies and trying to determine in which direction
the bag pipes were located as the Pipes and Drum corp warmed up.
Not quite completely absorbed in my thoughts I realized my husband had veered off towards the antique cars.
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The bag pipes and drums drew me away from the antique cars and we found the City of Winchester Pipes and Drums warming up under a group of large
shady trees over towards the Mount Bleak House.
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Slightly away from this area we viewed the showing of a beautiful bird from the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia.
Along with puppet shows, clowns, performers and the petting zoo, free games such as sack races, milk bottle toss, tug of war, balloon toss, 3-legged races, face painting, the cupcake walk, and
the strawberry patch hay maze are provided continuously throughout the Memorial Day weekend.
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Behind the Mount Bleak House and past the log cabin we found the food vendors and delicious treats baked and sold by the
Women of Leeds Episcopal Church, Markham, Virginia to support their outreach activities.
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Lots of fresh strawberries and crafts with strawberry themes were available for sale.
We enjoyed browsing the items offered for sale by the 50+ vendors plus I found and purchased a copper color spinning sun catcher that
I've enjoyed out in my garden since bringing it home.
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The city of Winchester seemed to be the closest for medical (pharmacy, hospital, walk in emergency locations) and eateries (fast foods and cafes).
Sky Meadows State Park is located about 20 miles east of the city of Winchester, Virginia.
Midway between Sky Meadows and Winchester is the 700-acre Blandy Experimental Farm. This University of Virginia research facility
is also the home of the State Arboretum of Virginia.
Click here to view our photos and comments regarding the Blandy Experimental Farm
and the State Arboretum of Virginia.
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Directions to the Sky Meadows State Park
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