First Landing State Park — Where the Forest Meets the Chesapeake
Tucked along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach, First Landing State Park feels surprisingly removed from the city just beyond its borders. Campsites sit beneath towering live oaks and maritime forest, while sandy paths lead through the dunes to 1.5 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline. It’s the kind of place where mornings begin quietly under the trees and evenings end watching the sun settle across the water.
Virginia’s most-visited state park encompasses nearly 2,900 acres, with miles of trails winding through maritime forests, wetlands, lagoons and bald cypress swamps. The park also carries centuries of history: English colonists landed here in 1607, long before the campground, trails and beach became a destination for today’s travelers.
The photographs below capture my time at First Landing—from life around the campground to those simple moments along the Chesapeake Bay that make camping here so memorable.
