Machicomoco SP, VA
After all the drama and trauma of camper trade, we landed in Machicomoco State Park, along the York River. It’s the newest of Virginia parks and we loved it. The name is from Algonquin meaning “important meeting place”.
There are about 27 sites with water and electric, couple of tent sites and 3 yurts, it’s a small campground. The park is over 600 acres, some of these are in the process of being restored from fields to native meadows and forests. There’s a large meadow in the center, with a road and walking trail along side of it. It’s wide open, with trails leading to view points along the river. It’s close to the Historic Triangle - Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg. There’s boat launch area, including handicap kayak launch.
After all the stress of dealing with the camper switch, it was nice to be just able to walk around the park and enjoy the views.
We took a tour of Yorktown, including the revolutionary war battlefield. It’s a lovely waterfront with shops and restaurants, with pretty town beach. The historic town has some craft shops and museums, we opted for a bus tour.
More interesting visit for to the original Jamestown. After walking through sites of the original settlement, we met up with on-site archeologist who told us very interesting details about the current dig. They found skeletal remains of a young woman, maybe 14-15 years old and were able to tell that she was originally from England, due to proportions of specific isotope only present when wheat is consumed regularly (no wheat in New World at the time). They also found signs of knife marks on her bones, suggesting cannibalism. Apparently one year the settlers were in such dire straits due to lack of supples that they resorted to cannibalism. You can read more details on the Jamestown website. Very sobering thought of how difficult those early days were for the colonists. Certainly it was nothing like the depiction in Disney’s “Pocohantas”.
It was good to relax in Machicomoco, but eventually we moved on.
