Pohick Bay Regional Park — Attraction in Lorton

We were returning home from an extended camping trip and decided to make a stop in NOVA, we originally hoped to stay at Bull Run Park but they have a 2 night minimum on all campsites, even day of/walk in campers.

So we found Pohick Bay had primitive/tent camping options for 1 night. And the ratings seemed good. We arrived and the process for reserving a site was very easy! We went to the campground to pick a spot but truly had a very hard time….almost all of the sites we wanted had large widow maker/dead trees overhanging the tent area. We had 6-7 sites we liked but chose against because they were kind of scary! And I say that as someone who has worked in the conservation field with sawyer/chainsaw training and experience. So when selecting your campsite here-make sure you look up!! We found one that worked (and later, after setting up saw another dead limb that probably would have redirected us to yet another site) Reservation process was easy though! After we got our site figured out we headed over to the pool/waterpark for an hour.

That evening we all needed to shower and the bathhouse looked pretty rough from the outside and we discussed going over to the nicer bathhouses in the other campground but I told my husband “eh, how bad could it be?” It was absolutely disgusting! And truly a hazard. My daughter and I quickly showered and tried not to touch anything. There were tiles coming loose on the floor, grime, bugs, spiders and webs, etc all over the showers. The ADA shower was certainly not up to ADA code. I understand being short staffed…but it was evident these showers had not been PROPERLY cleaned in a very long time. Then my husband and son went over for their shower. Everything was manageable…until my son was stepping out of the shower and slipped on the tile floor (absolutely NO slip protection in any of the showers) and hit his face on the corner of the tiny wooden shelf/bench in the shower. He immediately started bleeding everywhere and my husband was afraid at first it was his eye. But thankfully it was just his eyebrow area and as EMTs we could manage the bleeding and determined he didn’t need stitches/hospital visit.

We called the on-call number and the campground supervisor arrived promptly. We requested an accident report filed in case we ended up having to take him to the ER for any reason. She initially said this bathhouse was due for renovation…so it was hard to clean. And while I understand old facilities….spiders, webs, bugs and shower grime happen in new facilities too. They obviously don’t take much pride in maintaining the facilities they do have. Their cleaning room (pictured) is evidence of that. Then she stated, “the showers are on the back of the facility…so the staff may forget to clean them sometimes.” Not really sure what more can be said about that. We tried to clean up the blood as best we could before we took our son back to camp…so hopefully they were able to clean up the biohazard before anyone else used that shower. We also mentioned to her about the hazard trees.

We asked for the park manager or assistant manager to reach out and she said she would send an email and they would reach out to us the next day. We still have not heard anything from any of their staff and it’s been almost two weeks since the accident report was filed with...

This was a great camping experience for my boyfriend and I. We arrived around 7pm and the staff made us feel welcomed and were informed. Also, the registration office was filled with common camping items which was great. Wood is about $7 for a bunch of 6 or 7; not too pricey. Also, there is trash pick up service which I though was great - it showed that this place really enjoyed making their visitors experience a pleasant one. As for the camping sites, our site was extremely spacious and the amenities were rather nice - we weren't looking for anything fancy though, just the basics and this place satisfied our needs. In the campground, if I'm not mistaken, there are only a few comfort stations. Each come with 4 bathroom stalls, 4 showers, and 4 sinks. The station that was closest to ours had a room with a few washing machines and dryers which was a great surprise! The trails were short though which were a disappointment - the longest we saw on the map was roughly 3 miles, so my guess is that this place is more family oriented. While the sites were spacious, my only wish was that the sites had more trees between them as some campers were rather loud during our stay and the noise traveled easily with little barrier. Other than that though, I will definitely come here again! Also, try not to keep food in your tent. We kept some nuts inside because it was too cold to eat outside and we figured with no bears around, it wouldn't be a problem. Wrong. I woke up during the night to an animal outside our tent - I'm not sure what it was but it was obviously interested in our nuts as it kept coming back to our tent and circling it. It wasn't nice waking up to my head being sniffed out from the outside so if this would freak you out, don't do what we did and keep food out of your tent! :)...

Beautiful fall camping experience! Enjoyed our first stay here so much in the beginning of November, we decided to spend Thanksgiving weekend here as well! Both times all the employees and the campground supervisor were AMAZING! Super helpful, incredibly friendly, and very accommodating. Our first trip we arrived at nearly 10pm and could not see a thing. A quick call to the main number and we were able to get a hold of Nick (campground supervisor) who came out in a truck and escorted us to a drive-through spot since we couldn't see to backup. We were able to move to our reserved spot in the morning after some sleep :) On trip 2 we realized after getting fully setup that the diverter on our water connection was not working. We quickly stopped at the camp store and reported the issue and the amazing staff had us repaired and operational before we even returned from a quick errand. Both trips we had great views of the changing leaves, peace and quiet, and access to the campground store until 8pm every day. The spots are predominantly gravel, there are several that are level or very easy to level on (pull through spots are harder to level), and a handful of sites have full connections. We had full connections on trip 1, water/elec on trip 2. The dump station is clean and easy to use as well. Comfort station were clean enough that we used the showers, finding nice hot water and great water pressure for a thorough cleaning. We will definitely be back here for a winter or two camping adventure, but ultimately cannot wait for spring and summer so we can take advantage of the water park and many other amenities this location...