Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area

About Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area

The Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) offers 13.4 miles of hiking trails, 7 miles of horseback riding trails and 6.6 miles of mountain biking trails. It is the site of 2 fishing ponds (one of which is universally accessible), 800 acres of forest and meadows, environmental education programs, equestrian facilities, geocaching, and bird watching. Meadowood provides year-round environmental education and Jr Ranger programs for homeschoolers, public and private schools, local 4-H groups and community youth agencies. Test your biking skills on our three single track trails with their own flavor and style: Yard Sale (known as our downhill pump track) is a fast and flowing rhythm with table tops; Stinger is a rustic and narrow, predominately hand built trail with natural obstacles; and Boss is a chunky flow trail with rock gardens, drop offs, and three-dimensional wooden features like rolling boardwalks and banked turns. These trails are geared toward the intermediate skilled rider, with options for beginners and experts alike. This landscape mosaic contains a variety of terrains and vegetation types. These include gently sloping open meadows, mature hardwood forests along steep slopes and floodplains, and riparian areas, freshwater ponds and streams. Red and white oak, beech, sweet gum, Virginia pine, and persimmon, which are common sights in mid-Atlantic woodlands and appear throughout the forests at Meadowood. The ponds, streams and riparian areas in the SRMA host a wide variety of insects, fish and other wildlife. BLM and the State of Virginia survey the population in the fishing ponds periodically and restock them when needed. Grass-eating carp are among the species stocked in the ponds; they cannot reproduce, and they eat invasive aquatic weeds, which would otherwise overwhelm small ponds. In addition to stocked species, the American eel appears in the area’s ponds and streams and serves as attractants to the local Bald eagles. Migrating waterfowl s

How to Get There

From Interstate 95 South: Exit 163 to Lorton. Turn left onto Lorton Rd, continue under the second overpass and turn right onto Lorton Market St. Continue approximately 1.5 miles to U.S. Route 1. Proceed straight through intersection with Route 1, when the road name changes to Gunston Rd. Continue for 1 mile; the entrance to the Meadowood SRMA is on the right. From Interstate 95 North: Take exit 161 to Lorton, U.S. Route 1 North. Proceed about 1.5 miles to first stop light. Turn right onto Gunston Rd. Go about 1 mile to find the entrance on right.

Plan Your Visit to Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area

Heading to Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area? A few things to know before you go:

• Reservations: popular sites fill up fast — check Recreation.gov 6 months in advance
• Fees: day-use and camping fees vary; check current rates on the official park page
• Trash & pack-out: follow Leave No Trace principles
• Wildlife: store food in bear boxes where provided; never feed wildlife
• Weather: the 5-day forecast above is updated every 6 hours; verify just before you go

References & Official Resources

• Official Recreation.gov page
• Park map (PDF)
• View on OpenStreetMap
• Driving directions (Google Maps)