Natural Bridge was bought by Thomas Jefferson from the King of England in 1774. Jefferson hoped to have it saved as a park. Sadly after his death the property was sold to help pay his debts.

“Few men have resolution to . . . look over into the abyss. You involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over it. Looking down from this height about a minute gave me a violent head ach[e]. If the view from the top is painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for the emotions, arising from the sublime, to be felt beyond what they are here: so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing, as it were up to heaven, the rapture of the spectator is indescribable.”

Thomas Jefferson’s description of the Natural Bridge

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1988. At the center of the park the 200-foot tall Natural Bridge sits in a limestone gorge carved out by Cedar Creek.

We visited today and were delightfully suprised to find the tree tunnel paths along Cedar Creek were an oasis of refreshing coolness on a sweltering day in the low 90’s! i

Fun family fact about the Natural Bridge: mom & dad honeymooned there! It was the farthest she had ever traveled from home in her life, dad on the other hand had served overseas in WWII & toured parts of Europe after the war ended.

We walked the additional mile to see this waterfall! On the way back we stopped to cool off in the Salt Peter cave where we spied a nest containing a couple baby birds on a shelf up high!

It was a wonderful little day trip and such a beautiful spot! I’m glad it has been turned into Virginia’s 37th state park, as it is now protected just like Thomas Jefferson had hoped.

On the drive home we popped into the parking lot of Dinosaur Kingdom II to get a couple photos of weird & whacky roadside art. It’s a bizzare little park that bills itself as the number one tourist attraction in Virginia(!). Created by the slightly demented ‘genius’ who gave the world Foamhenge – a lifesize reproduction of Stonehenge made of foam…

Experience a wooded, walking adventure of the wildest, weirdest, craziest dinosaur park the Washington Post has called Amazing! Brilliant! Hilarious! This is definitely not your father’s dinosaur park! Enter into a time tunnel and discover Stonewall Jackson battling a vicious spinosaurus! get surrounded by deadly meat eaters! See Abe Lincoln after he’s lassoed a pteranodon chewing up the Gettysburg address! witness a stegosaurus being milked! If you like prehistoric creatures and civil war history, you’ll flip out over Dinosaur Kingdom II!

Dinosaur Kingdom

Perhaps one day we’ll pop in for the tour – LOL!