Best Equestrian Camping near Lightfoot, VA

Largest State Park in Virginia - nearly 8,000 acres. We stayed two nights and paddled around Swift Creek Lake on Sunday. The staff was amazing. Camp store has ice, drinks, snacks, souvenirs, and wood is $5 a bucket (honor system). Bathhouses (showers separate of restrooms) were very clean. The first campground you come to definitely has more shade than the second loop so if you're looking to hammock camp, pick the first campground. In both campgrounds, some sites are a bit close together and/or close to the road. Tons of trails, some for mixed use and other for mountain bikers, some for horses, and some for hiking only. Great location! Will definitely be back!

We spent three nights here (May 17-19, 2022). This is an awesome State Park CG with wide, level pull through and back-in sites.

There is a small gift shop at the main entrance. The camp store was closed during our stay. We did not make use of the laundry, bathrooms or showers.

Activities include: hiking/walking, mtn biking (three levels of difficulty– wish I brought my mtn bike), boating, fishing, swimming, equestrian, etc. The trails are excellent. The forest and lakes are absolutely amazing. There is so much to see and do.

This is the kind of park that you hate to leave. We would most definitely stay here again (and again). How fun!

The trails at this park are very well maintained. They are designated as hiking, biking, and/or horseback riding, so you'll know which trails are best for your activity.

This park has some of the best bike trails in the state - over 25 miles. Several new mountain-bike-only trails opened just this year. The difficulties are clearly marked as Novice through Expert. They even installed maintenance equipment at the entrance of each new trail so you can make minor adjustments without carrying your own equipment.

A number of the hiking trails through this park are wide fire roads. Smaller paths wind throughout the park connecting the larger trails together. Be sure to get a park map before you start your adventure. This is the largest state park in Virginia and it's easy to get turned around.

If you're into Geocaching, or want to learn how, you can pick up a hand-held GPS from the park office along with a list of the geocaches located in the park. The geocaches are rotated on a fairly frequent basis, so there will always be new caches for you to find.

Pocahontas State Park has a great Nature Center where you can pet or hold some of the smaller snakes, and watch the box turtles wander around. Here you can learn about the local plants and wildlife so you know what to look for out on the trail. There are even craft activities for the little ones. Just check with the park office or the Nature Center for a schedule of events.

For water lovers there is a large swimming pool that is open during the summer months. If you're camping for the night, your entrance to the pool is included in your stay. Or, if you prefer kayaks and canoes, you can put in at Swift Creek Lake for a flatwater paddle. The park has rental equipment if need to borrow gear.

The southern end of the park has been designed for the horse lovers. There is ample parking for trailers and miles of wide trails so you don't have to ride single file. The park includes new facilities for your horses including two exercise rings. There are no overnight facilities for horses at this park.

The camping sites are nothing special. Tent and RV camping are in the same area. They do provide plenty of room for your tent, and include a picnic table and fire ring. Many of the sites are in almost full sun, so you may want to bring a shade of some type with you.

Beware that there is a huge tick population in this park. Be sure to wear bug spray if you'll be out in the woods at any point.

All-in-all, this is a fantastic park for families. There is a little bit of everything for everyone in your family.

Have you ever wanted to go to a beach where the water is calm, clear, warm and shallow? With hardly any people there? Kiptopeake is the beach for you! Located on the bay there aren't huge waves to worry about or big beach crowds. Kiptopeake is my favorite Virginia State Park campground, hands down. 

Camping:

If you are a primitive tent camper like us, you'll want to get the site-specific sites. They are more secluded, bigger, and walkable to the beach. The sites in the site-specific loop are conveniently located to the bathrooms which have nice hot showers! Each site has a pretty standard picnic table and fire ring with enough room for two tents. Our site didn't have tons of room for two cars though, we had to squeeze in to our space awkwardly. We've been here in pretty much all months of the spring, summer and fall and have never had a problem with mosquitoes or biting flies.

To Do:

The beach at Kiptopeake is so beautiful! Most of the time we post up and spend all day there. I highly recommend watching the sunset from the beach. Check out the concrete fleet on a kayak. There's some great hiking, butterfly garden, bird watching. Virginia State Parks has some great programs for the kids as well! The town of Cape Charles nearby is very charming and worth a visit for cute shops and restaurants. 

Highly recommend this park! It is a really special place you'll want to keep coming back to!