Lake Anna State Park is a beautiful park nestled along the shores of Lake Anna is Spotsylvania, Virginia. The park is about 1.5 hours from Washington D.C. and about an hour from Richmond. We camped here while we visited family in Fredericksburg. It also makes a great campground if you want to tour Washington D.C. We drove to Fredericksburg and took the train in in order to miss all of the traffic on Interstate 95.

The park has a large beach area which attracts a lot of people. The grassy area behind the beach can get very busy. The lake in front of the beach is sectioned off by depth and floaties are only allowed in the first two sections. When you check in for the campground, they give you a pool pass for the entire length of your stay which was nice so that you do not have to pay any extra fees.

There are also several trails at Lake Anna State Park to hike. The park map below can be obtained from the Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation.

My favorite trail was the Railroad Ford Trail. It is about 1.5 miles long and it begins and ends on the Campground Connector trail.

The trail starts out by hugging the shoreline of Lake Anna.

As you follow the trail further out, you can look back and see the beach area.

After a few twists and turns through the forest, you begin to hike on an old raised rail bed. The line was once owned by the Virginia Lead and Zinc Company and was used to transport ore further down the line.

We also hiked the Fisherman’s Trail.

Campground Review:

We loved the campground at Lake Anna. In between most sites were mature trees creating privacy. The sites were wide and long with a gravel driveway. Each site also has a large tent pad, a picnic table and fire ring.

We had Site 43 and it was very nice. It was a bit of a walk to the bathrooms, but it was close to the Campground Connector Trail which connects the campground to the beach area.

A note for this state park is that you can make reservations online, but the reservations are not site specific. When you pull in, you have your choice of the remaining campsites that are available. The bathrooms were very nice and had separate shower stalls. The showers had hot water and great water pressure.

We also felt very safe at this park. Spotsylvania County police were patrolling on the weekends, both the campground and at the beach area.