While visiting my brother in Virginia, we took a trip to Natural Bridge State Park which is 20 minutes south of Lexington, Virginia. There is a huge Visitor Center with one of the largest state park gift shops I have ever seen!

It does cost $9 per person to visit the natural bridge and you can pay the fee at either the Visitor Center or the Trail Store. From the main parking lot, it is 137 steps down to the Trail Store which is where the Cedar Creek Trail starts. While walking down those stairs, to the left is the lush Cascade Falls.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, the 200 foot natural bridge is within sight. We could not believe how big it was! It is the largest limestone arch in North America.

The arch was formed when a cave collapsed.

A fun fact that we learned was that Thomas Jefferson once owned the arch!

The trail continues for about a mile past the natural bridge; following Cedar Creek the entire way. I highly recommend that you hike the full trail as there was a lot of interesting features along the way and it was a relatively flat and easy hike. We even saw a family of otters on the bank of the creek!

We really liked the bridge over Cedar Creek to Saltpeter Cave.

We thought the rock formations along the creek looked like “ribs” and it created small cascades and little waterfalls the entire way.

The trail ends at the appropriately named Lace Falls. You then head back the way you came and back up the 137 steps 🙂

We also decided to hike the Skyline Trail as it was recommended by the employee at the Gift Shop for its amazing mountain views. To get to this trail, you actually drive over the natural bridge! We had no idea that a road crosses it and we found it interesting that while hiking to the bridge, you could not hear any noise from vehicular traffic.

This trail did not disappoint!

I really enjoyed hiking through the meadow with the Blue Ridge Mountains to our right!

We also took my cousin’s Geo Bear along for the trip! We took some pictures and bought a few post cards so that her school class could learn about Natural Bridge State Park!

I highly recommend this state park! Let me know if you have any questions!