Hey yawl, meet my first featured Virginia State Parks' dawg named McDuff. One reason I think McDuff is so cool is that this dawg has been to 33 of the 36 Virginia State Parks and is living proof that Virginia State Park trails are the best.

GET YOUR TAILS ON THE TRAILS!

McDuff digs the sand at Westmoreland State Park and makes a discovery

I’m a cocker spaniel, and I LOVE Virginia State Parks

My mom and dad have been to all 36 parks, and I’ve been to 33 of them. I haven’t yet been to Kiptopeke State Park, First Landing State Park, and False Cape State Park. They tell me I’ll get to go to the first two this summer, but I will probably never get to False Cape as we’re all too old to hike in, and we have no way of going by boat. Oh well, 35 out of 36 isn’t too bad I guess. I’m looking forward to all the new parks, too, as they open. We went to Powhatan State Park the second day it was open! There were lots of dogs visiting there that day, sniffing out new places and leaving their mark. 

It’s hard to say which park is my favorite 

We often walk the Bay View Trail at Mason Neck State Park because it’s close to home. I like to hang out along the water’s edge when the tide is low and the water is calm and maybe dip in a toe or two while my humans watch the birds. They really like seeing the eagles!

Sky Meadows State Park is another favorite. We all like to hang out on the porch of Mount Bleak House and take in the view.

Mom says her favorite park is Grayson Highlands State Park, but I think mine is Westmoreland State Park. (She won’t admit it, but I think Westmoreland might be a sentimental favorite of Mom’s. Her parents took her to Westmoreland several times when she was a kid. I’ve even seen pictures. Cameras way back then must have been colorblind because everything is in shades of black, white, and gray.) 

I had the BEST time there checking out a piece of driftwood—at least that’s what I think it was—buried in the sand. It looked really small, but I kept pulling and pulling until it was all out of the sand and saw it was way longer than I am! I’ve included a couple of pictures so you can see what I’m talking about. Boy, that was fun!

Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me bring it home, but I’m going to look for it again the next time we go there.

How can a dawg not love Virginia State Parks with all these sticks?

Nice talking to you all.  I’m always happy to talk about my park adventures.

McDuff

P.S. Can you ask the VSP staff to install more of those dog-level water fountains like they have at Smith Mountain Lake State Park? What a great invention!

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CALLING ALL COOL DAWGS

See part 1 when I introduced this series here.

Remember, paws were meant to get muddy!