Bear Creek Lake State Park
Virginia State Park Inside The 16,000 Acre Cumberland State Forest; Trailhead For The Sixteen Mile Willis River Trail · Cumberland, Virginia
A forty-acre lake sitting inside the sixteen-thousand-acre Cumberland State Forest, an hour west of Richmond, and like Holliday Lake at the other end of the same idea it is defined by what is around it rather than what is in it. The lake was dammed in the 1930s and the park round it is small and plain: a swimming beach with a bath house, a campground, a few cabins, boat rental, a fishing pier and a handful of short trails. What makes it worth the drive is the forest. Cumberland is a working state forest managed for timber and open to hunting in season, and it carries the Willis River Trail - sixteen miles of genuine backcountry walking, one of the longest hiking trails in the Piedmont and almost entirely unused, which begins here. Most visitors never leave the lake, which means the campground can be full on a July Saturday while a mile into the forest there is nobody at all.
929 Oak Hill Road, Cumberland, Virginia, 23040, United States
Park open daily, generally 8 AM to dusk with seasonal variation. Swimming beach, bath house and boat rental are SEASONAL, mainly June to August. Visitor facilities keep shorter hours and are reduced in winter. Camping and cabins by reservation; there are only a few cabins. Parking fee per vehicle plus a separate seasonal beach charge. THE SURROUNDING CUMBERLAND STATE FOREST IS OPEN TO HUNTING IN SEASON - check dates before walking the Willis River Trail.
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