One of the best things about serving a domestic Foreign Service tour is proximity and access to all the wonderful aspects of life in the United States. In contrast to many overseas assignments challenged by air pollution, security restrictions, or lack of infrastructure, northern Virginia boasts a nearly endless array of activities with no such hindrances.
One of my favorite things lately about living in Virginia has been enjoying its beautiful nature.
In April 2014, Virginia (VA) State Parks launched Trail Quest, a free, self-paced program to encourage visitors to see all 43 of Virginia’s state parks.
Visitors create an account on the VA State Parks website, and report the name and date for each park they visit. In turn, rangers mail out decorative pins when visitors reach their fifth park, and again at 10, 20, and 30-park intervals. (If visitors report multiple visits to the same park, only the first visit is recorded.)
Adventurers can visit the parks in any order they like, and enjoy their time there however it suits them: day hiking, camping, kayaking, attending a guided program, or just stopping in for a picnic. A visit to the final park garners the master hiker pin and a certificate, presented by rangers at the park of one’s choice.
VA State Parks hoped Trail Quest would encourage Virginians to get out and visit state parks beyond their own neighborhoods. And while the pins are cool, the real perk of Trail Quest is getting to see all the different parks the state has on offer – for the incredible value of an $85 annual pass.
I first started getting interested in Trail Quest during summer 2023, more than a year after we’d moved back to Virginia from Mexico.
At that time, just over 450 people had already completed the challenge. One finisher is a friend of ours named DH, who we’ve known for over 15 years. I had enjoyed her social media posts the preceding year about all the parks she’d visited. V and I thought we’d try Trail Quest out.
We remembered, combing through my Facebook account, that we’d already visited Mason Neck State Park during our third month of COVID-19 pandemic isolation. So we tardily reported that park and received our first park pin; VA State Parks has since retired the practice of sending pins before park five.
We’d had quite a break in the interim, what with our tour in Ciudad Juárez and us generally sleeping on Trail Quest before and after our return from Mexico. (To be fair, during half of the program’s 10 years to-date, we’ve been serving overseas.)
In the fall of 2023, we visited two additional parks: Sky Meadows State Park and Leesylvania State Park.
At each, we hiked a handful of miles on a weekend day and had an enjoyable morning, despite what I felt was oppressive humidity. Then the weather began to turn as autumn arrived. V is less than keen to hike in cold weather, but a variety of family and health matters occupied us through the end of 2023 anyway and we weren’t able to visit any more state parks.
Until the fall of 2024 arrived, and with less than a year until our PCS to Burma, we have renewed our Trail Quest efforts in earnest…
Collecting Postcards 
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