Fraser Preserve, Great Falls, VA- Spring

They take conservation seriously there. This amused me to no end.

Conservation trash talk!

Fraser Preserve is admittedly a new discovery to me and my family. It was property given to the Nature Conservancy in the 70's that allows and encourages walkers to enjoy. It doesn't have tremendous mileage in terms of trails, but you can easily extend your walk via their connector trail west into Seneca Regional Park via the fire road or Potomac Heritage trail or east via the Potomac Heritage Trail towards Riverbend (see my very detailed map below). The actual preserve is rich in wildlife and lush vegetation. Once you enter the park from the parking lot there is, what I named in my map, an unmarked "Obvious Dirt Trail" to the left. Take it! I have never seen so many toads and frogs in one place in all of my life. I dubbed that "Frog Forest." It is also a pretty spot to stop for a snack or to have a picnic lunch. The "Obvious Dirt Trail" is approximately a mile long. From there it takes you back out to the gravel road where you can continue on to the blue trail. There you will see the welcome sign and you can decide whether you'd like to head around clockwise or counter clockwise. Clockwise takes you immediately to a natural (dirt) path. Counter clockwise, you follow a gravel road where you will see a house to the right and various camp buildings (the site hosts environmental camps for children during the summer), once it opens back up you cross the field to the left and head back into the woods on the other side (see my map, it's not perfectly to scale but it is pretty darn accurate if I do say so myself 😉.) The entire blue path has pretty dense vegetation, it is gorgeous. Keep your eyes open for all kinds of critters: frogs, toads, lizards (skinks), and, dare I say it, snakes. I don't want to discourage you, but we have seen three snakes, in probably 5 trips there, so your chances are high. They don't want anything to do with you, so just keep your eyes open and look at the sunny spots. That's where they come out to warm up. When they hear, see, smell or otherwise sense you, they are gone fast.

We have put together various walks there, if you are looking for suggestions let me know, you can send me an email here at wandererdmv@gmail.com, but our go-to route is:

Favorite Route approx 5 miles

Obvious Dirt Trail

Around one side of the Blue Trail to the Yellow Connector Trail

Gravel Fire Road to the right (East) to the metal fence turn around

Gravel Fire Road to the end of Seneca Regional Park turn around

Fraser Yellow Connector Trail

Opposite side of Blue Trail back to the car park

This map tells you all you need to know 😁

There is also a story behind it. I made it for one of my friends who also has two boys. She was looking for places to go on hikes with her boys. I drew her this map. She then suggested that I start a blog. I thought it would be a fun summer project. The rest is history.

Now on to our nature walk:

Spotted early on is a Broad Headed Skink juvenile with red cheeks.

A Fowler's Toad

Baby Turtle

Blue Damselfly

Garter Snake making its getaway

Almost at the metal fence, our turn-around-to-head-to-Seneca spot

There are MANY pools of tadpoles along the fire road. These are Bullfrog Tadpoles which are HUGE!

And an actual Bullfrog. You can hear them all throughout the swampy wetlands down there.

They make quite a chorus!

After our walk outside of the Preserve, we return to the creek bed for lunch. There the boys spot a bird's nest, many toads, another bullfrog and a water snake.