Bald Cypress at First Landing

Saturday's threatened rain held off until late afternoon, and so we got in a quick four mile hike at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. Look at these photos - it looks more like a South Carolina swamp than somewhere in Virginia with all of the Spanish moss hanging from trees, and the large bald cypress trees:

The trails we hiked on were the Bald Cypress Trail and the Osmanthus Trail. Most of the trail went through open mixed wood and pine forest, with bald cypress stands along the way. Above average dry conditions over the past couple of years has resulted in very little water in the cypress swamps. Some of them were virtually dry. The park volunteer I talked to said that wetland wildlife has been very negatively affected by the lack of water. The only wildlife seen during the four miles were a decent number of hungry mosquitos. These photos give a good idea of the dry swamps that were prevalent during the hike:

Cypress "knees"

Bald cypress stand in Virginia, a touch of the deep south far to the north