Have you been on The Bassett Trace Nature Trail – a local secret now open again to the public
The Bassett Nature Trail in Colonial Williamsburg – venture into nature
If you are looking for a wonderful place to take a short walk or a longer hike…this is your spot: The Bassett Trace Nature Trail. It includes foot bridges, streams, a dam with the pond where the Rockefeller family once had built their boathouse, plants and trees with educational markers and a newly opened path.
Bassett Trace Nature Trail history goes back to the Rockefeller days but it was just reopened in the fall of 2019. The nature walk portion of the trail is a pretty easy walk about ½ mile, round trip. However you may want to walk the entire 1.4 mile trail (2.8 miles round trip).
The trail head is located in the parking lot for the Griffin Hotel’s Gold Wing off Bucktrout Lane and the trail stops at the Clubhouse for the Golden Horseshoe’s Green Course.
What you will find on the trail will amaze you. You will wander thru forests of hardwood trees such as sycamores, tulip trees, beeches, oaks, hornbeams, hickories, walnuts, locusts and large magnolias. The Bassett Woodlands is home to a wide variety of native plants and birds.
It is recommended that you wear walking shoes (no sandals), use bug repellent and bring your water bottle. It is dog friendly but they ask that you clean up after your pet. No smoking or littering on this trail. The slogan “take only pictures, leave only footprints” applies to this lovely trail.
Birders may want to bring binoculars because it is home to “cardinals, mockingbirds, blue jays, wrens, chickadees, warblers, owls, woodpeckers, titmice and sparrows” according to the Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum. Make sure to read their in depth article about the Bassett Trace Nature Trail. And since you are in the area, download their map of the big trees of Colonial Williamsburg. It is fascinating map you can use after the trail to identify the trees in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg down Duke of Glouchester.
Learn more about the trail at this link: Bassett Trace Nature Trail
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