In terms of state parks, Natural Bridge State Park, Virginia (there’s also a Natural Bridge State Resort Park in Kentucky) isn’t a particularly large one. READ MORE: The Best Restaurants in Lexington VA & Natural Bridge VA for Foodies The Front of Natural Bridge, photo by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett Natural Bridge Hiking Trails The parking area for the Visitor Center is right at the intersection. This will cross the VA-130 E in about 3.4 miles. Travel southwest for around 42 miles to take Exit 180 onto the US-11 S. After about 100 miles, take the exit for I-81 S. The parking area for the Visitor Center will be on the right.įrom Richmond, getting to Natural Bridge requires about two hours. Follow US 11-N for 1.6 miles to VA-130 E.
Travel north on I-81 to Exit 175 onto US-11 N. OFFICIAL WEBSITE: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreationįrom Roanoke VA, the trip to Natural Bridge State Park takes about 30 minutes. OFFICE HOURS: Park open from 8:00 am to dusk Visitor Center open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pmĮNTRY FEES: Per person, age 3-12, $6.00 age 13 and up, $9.00 parking at trailheads, $5.00 READ MORE: Camping and Hiking in Grayson Highlands State Park, VA Natural Bridge State Park Entrance, photo by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett Natural Bridge State Park VA InfoĪDDRESS: 6477 South Lee Highway, Natural Bridge, VA 24578 Read on for our in-depth guide to visiting Natural Bridge, including a list of the hiking trails, tourist attractions, and campgrounds in Natural Bridge VA. Now, it is the namesake and primary feature of Natural Bridge State Park in Virginia, the state’s 37th park, which encompasses just over 1500 acres and was recently recognized as an International Dark Sky Park. It was also a sacred site for the Monacan Indian nation, who controlled the James River in the Piedmont region all the way west to the Blue Ridge Mountains when the Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607. Of course, the Natural Bridge in Virginia had a place in history long before the days of colonialism. The famous 215-foot-tall Natural Bridge is so ingrained in American lore partly because our first President, George Washington, carved his initials in it.įounding Father Thomas Jefferson later bought the landmark (and 157 acres surrounding it) from King George III in 1774. It has also been one of the most popular Virginia attractions ever since before the USA was even a country.
We hope that this species' sustainable North American population can serve as a backstop to extinction in their native range.Though it wasn’t designated as one of Virginia’s State Parks until 2016, Natural Bridge of VA has been listed on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1988. We are committed to this species long-term and plan to expand our population of these birds in the future to educate and inspire guests at our park for decades to come. Virginia Safari Park is capitalizing on our success with this species and is working cooperatively with other zoos to maximize genetic diversity and the number of birds produced in the population. We were the only ZAA accredited facility to hatch and raise this species in the time frame and produced 45% of the chicks successfully hatched in the regional population. Through these husbandry methods, we have successfully produced four chicks from 2018-2021. Additionally, we regularly employ the use of whole carcass feeding to the birds, which is enriching, helps social structure, and is nutritionally beneficial. Birds in our breeding group are fully flighted, which we feel is a crucial component to the success of our breeding program. Ruppell's griffon vultures are a communal nesting species, so we knew that successful breeding would require multiple pairs living in as natural and undisturbed of a setting as possible. Two pairs of sub-adult vultures were sourced from the Republic of Guinea in West Africa and arrived in the U.S. With only a limited number of birds in the regional population, we decided to import new founder stock to augment the population already in the United States. Given the past success we have had with rare species across all taxa, we wanted to employ our expertise to help this critically endangered vulture species. Virginia Safari Park committed in 2012 to making the Ruppell's griffon vulture a focus species for our conservation breeding efforts. Virginia Safari Park was recognized recently by the Zoological Association of America for its breakthrough in successful breeding of Ruppell's Griffon Vulture.
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