James River Park - The Wetlands — Attraction in Richmond

It was a very beautiful park. The greenery + view of the river felt very serene. It has been raining the past few days, so the path was a bit muddy. There are warnings at the front of the park how bikers shouldn’t go through the muddy trails, but that wasn’t the case when we were there. There’s a lot of shade, so it was bearable for a 90 degrees day sunny clear day. I was expecting it to be full of people, like at Belle Isle, but surprisingly there weren’t a lot of people. Great trails for dogs since it’s pretty shady. I didn’t give it a 5 star because we ran into a few trees that were down. One of them had a power line intertwined with it, so that’s dangerous. Not sure if there’s a park ranger that checks out the trails daily like other parks in the area, but it could be kept better. I do appreciate how by the water, they have signs of warning based off of how the river...

This part of the James River Park System is a hidden gem for calm strolls, dog walking, and birdwatching. There’s a little swampy area with blinds built by the Audubon Society, and a boardwalk through the forest over a usually-flooded area. Pileated woodpeckers, green herons, blue herons, all manner of ducks, songbirds, and more can easily be found here. There are also deer here who can be seen year-round, and the signs talk of beavers too (I’ve not seen one myself here but it’s not impossible). If you are looking for easily-accessible nature that’s more “wild” than Maymont but still close to Richmond, this...

Richmond is lucky to have such a wonderful river and park system in the heart of the city. Deep woods with well maintained hiking and cycling trails and easy access to the James River for canoeing, kayaking or just sunning on the rocks. The park is also a bird watcher's paradise with many species of waterfowl, hawks, owls, eagles and many smaller birds. This park is a gem, not...