Breaking down the Chesapeake’s many diverse natural and historic sites

No matter the designation, there’s plenty of places to get outside in the watershed

By Rachel Felver |
A National Park Service ranger looks out at a wetland full of lotuses.
Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C., is just one of many sites administered by the National Park Service. (Photo by Skyler Ballard/Chesapeake Bay Program)
An aerial view of a forested and rocky mountain ridge.
Old Rag Mountain is part of Shenandoah National Park in Madison County, Virginia. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The outer walls of Fort Monroe stretch out toward a river on the horizon.
Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton, Virginia, protects 400 years of history, dating back to the first documented Africans in Virginia in 1619. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Frederick Douglass' home at Cedar Hill is preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The Douglass home is kept as it appeared around 1890. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
An aerial view of Harpers Ferry, nestled between two rivers.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Jefferson County, West Virginia, lies at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, and was the site of John Brown's raid. (Photo by Marielle Scott/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The stone profile of Martin Luther King, Jr., stands facing the Washington Monument.
Washington, D.C., is home to many national monuments, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Washington Monument (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The visitors center at Antietam sits on a ridge with a tall monument rising above.
Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland, was one of five Civil War battlefields that in the 1890s came under the administration of the War Department as a park. A century later, a conservation effort protected much of the surrounding viewscape from development as well. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A tour guide points to the river from the open from door of the Zimmerman Center for Heritage.
The Zimmerman Center for Heritage overlooks the Susquehanna River in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. The center is part of Susquehanna National Heritage Area as well as the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, and is the headquarters of Susquehanna Heritage. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A green forest stands between the Potomac River and the ridge of Seneca Rocks.
Seneca Rocks rises above the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River in Monongahela National Forest in Pendleton County, West Virginia. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A kayaker approaches the wooden vestiges of a ship, whose bow is home to an osprey nest.
Visitors to Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in Charles County, Maryland, can paddle around some of the 200 vessels deliberately shipwrecked there at the end of World War I. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
An osprey with outstretched wings and a stick grasped in its talons prepares to land on a nesting platform built in a salt marsh.
Wildlife Drive provides easy access to nesting osprey and other species at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, Maryland. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

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