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Media Information from the Virginia Tourism Corporation

Great Dismal Swamp / False Cape State Park

January 11, 2018

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The question people ask me most is where I want to go next. It usually surprises folks when I say home, back to Virginia. I can't even begin to explain the feeling I get in my bones when my plane is landing at Richmond airport after a month or two or three overseas. It is perhaps the greatest source of conflict in my life: I love to travel but I also love home. Still haven't figured out the perfect balance. The question I get after answering home in Virginia is why Virginia ? Too many reasons for me to list here – But I'm going to do my best to explain with photos over the next week. Made this photo of a cypress tree reflection this morning!! on lake Drummond , one of only two natural lakes in Virginia. Lake Drummond is part of The Great Dismal Swamp, a place that takes you back in time with 500 year old cypress trees dotting the shoreline and small ditch like canals built by people like George Washington. #loveVa #VAoutdoors @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 5, 2017 at 2:34pm PDT

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As Fall arrives and the sun seemingly spends more time on the horizon we are all treated to extraordinary early morning and late afternoon light. Yesterday, after spending the entire day on Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp , we were dead tired having canoed for hours, but we couldn't resist stopping and photographing this dirt track through a wet meadow section of the swamp that supports a wide array of birds and bugs. #loveva #VAoutdoors @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 6, 2017 at 9:58am PDT

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More than 500 years old, this bald cypress tree in Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp has been alive twice as long as the United States has been a nation. It is one of a few dozen or so ancient cypress trees remaining in the area; most of them were logged for timber and The swamp is now about 1/10th of its original size. Think for a second of the history this tree has seen, been a part of: George Washington was here in the late 1700s' and later the swamp served as an important hiding place for slaves who had escaped the terror of ownership by other humans. While one can't say this exact tree helped the slaves hiding in the swamp , I like the idea that this mysterious place, a wilderness of tangled trees and thorns and snakes , helped move us forward on the long road towards justice. #loveva #VAoutdoors #liveyouradventure @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 7, 2017 at 10:33am PDT

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For the last 6 years or so I've had a hard time noticing the beauty of small things. It became quite apparent when @melissalesh and I began making a life together and I noticed how she noticed the smallest things: a bug, the way light hit a leaf, the shape of a shadow cast, even the tiniest reflections. Even when she pointed them out I had a hard time appreciating them. It turns out I was struggling a low grade depression, and as William Styron wrote in his book darkness visible, it was as if the world had no color, Food had no taste, time spent with loved ones wasn't the same as years before. But the good news is all this is gone now, and when I'm out there these days I'm not only finding but smiling at those random, beautiful things that exist all around us if we take the time to stop and look around. Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp had these details, these small beautiful things in droves, and I spent an entire morning photographing things like this simple stick sculpture set perfectly, almost floating in the reflection of the sky on the lake Drummond. Do yourself a favor and visit the great dismal swamp. I recommend October : very few bugs, cool temperatures , changing color of leaves. #loveva #VAoutdoors #liveyouradventure @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 8, 2017 at 11:38am PDT

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False Cape State Park in southeast Virginia is arguably one of the finest state parks – hell one of the finest parks, period -I've visited in my lifetime. Not only is it one of the only remaining stretches of undeveloped coastline on the Atlantic coast, it is also one of the only parks in the United States that you can't access by car. To make it even better you can camp on the beach, as in right next to the ocean, waves crashing just yards from your tent. And did I mention wildlife? In three days we saw: otter, raccoon, cottonmouth or water moccasin snake, black racer snake, green tree frogs, southern leopard frogs, turkey vultures, red tail hawks, plovers, ghost crabs, and pray mantis. Plus dozens of awesome native plants like yucca , yellow jessamine, loblolly pine , sea oat grass and so on. This was my first visit to False Cape and I'm already figuring out when I can come back. Goes to show you that you can live in a state and still have so much to discover. Fellow Virginians, don't miss this place. Same to you folks living in other states. It is special and without comparison. #VAoutdoors #loveva #liveyouradventure @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 9, 2017 at 11:03am PDT

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This snake has two common names: the water moccasin and the cottonmouth. The name water moccasin comes from the fact that when the snake swims ( it is a largely an aquatic snake) its entire body floats on the surface, which is quite unusual amongst swimming snakes. The second name, cottonmouth (see second picture), is derived from the fact that when this snake is threatened it opens its jaws as wide as possible to reveal a bright white mouth that looks like balls of cotton on a cotton plant. It also rattles its tail like a rattle snake when threatened, ask me how I know! The thing is these poor snakes, like most snakes, are very misunderstood – and disrespected. Cottonmouths really aren't aggressive , they just stand their ground -Something we humans could learn something about. Unfortunately, many people in the south still kill them on sight , usually by chopping their head off with a shovel or another sharp object. Even worse most people think every water snake they see is a cotton mouth and so they kill every water snake. Please please please, when you see snakes, just leave them be! If they are somewhere too close to your home move them with a long pole or paddle or call someone in your area who is confident doing so. By the way: Snakes in your yard is a good sign: it means less rodents and rodents are truly bad for your health if they infest your home. Thanks for considering this 😊Photographed in False Cape State Park, Virginia. #loveva #VAoutdoors @visitvirginia

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 11, 2017 at 9:35am PDT

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@melissalesh on a early morning walk in False Cape State Park, Virginia. False Cape State Park protects 6 miles of undeveloped coastline and is considered a barrier spit, not a barrier island because it is connected to the mainland. But if you combine its 6 miles of wild coast with the 23 undeveloped barrier islands along Virginia's eastern shore you have one of the longest stretches of undeveloped coastline / beaches on the East Coast, period! In four days of walking and swimming on the beach in False Cape we saw just one person, a middle aged lady who was riding her bike up from North Carolina. #loveva #VAoutdoors @visitvirginia #liveyouradventure

A post shared by Trevor Frost (@tbfrost) on Oct 12, 2017 at 9:32am PDT

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A six hundred-year-old cypress tree stands tall in the tannin waters of Lake Drummond, Great Dismal Swamp. This national wildlife refuge is a hidden gem, discovered best by paddle powered water craft. Six years ago I worked on site as a park ranger with the @usfws. Memories from those days, black bears, cotton farms, banjo nights, now merge with new ones bringing this swamp ever closer to my heart. Great to be back // first stop on a filmic adventure thanks to @visitvirginia #vaoutdoors #loveva

A post shared by Melissa Lesh (@melissalesh) on Oct 6, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT

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Maritime trail brings you from a soft sand dune landscape scattered with pine forests and immature shrubs to the open Atlantic Ocean. An almost ghostly scene, no one, no houses, no developments as far as the eye can see. Pure beauty. How lucky we are to still have wild places like this on earth – pristine coastlines, salt marshes, swamps, all teaming with wildlife. This doesn’t happen by mistake, instead the result of many hard earned years and longsighted visions to keep public lands wild. Thank you @visitvirginia for letting us explore these amazing places right here in our own backyard. #virginiaoutdoors #loveva @freeflysystems

A post shared by Melissa Lesh (@melissalesh) on Oct 12, 2017 at 5:17pm PDT

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(🔈ON) The secret life of Atlantic ghost crabs (Ocypode quadrata)// an appropriate name meaning swift-footed. This particular morning we watched as this crab diligently cleaned out its burrow, brining sand from the depths and dumping it at the top, paying no attention to us only feet away. Did you know their club-shaped eye stalks can rotate 360 degrees? What I would do to have that! @visitvirginia @natgeocreative #loveva #vaoutdoors @canonusa

A post shared by Melissa Lesh (@melissalesh) on Oct 13, 2017 at 5:37am PDT

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Video by @melissalesh and @tbfrost | TURN ON SOUND! | A juvenile cottonmouth (also known as a water moccasin) snake slowly moves across a shallow pool of water while on the hunt for frogs in False Cape State Park, Virginia. Cottonmouths are venomous and are quite common in the southeastern United States, though you don't find them north of the Appomattox River in Virginia. The name cottonmouth comes from the bright white mouth they have (it resembles a ball of cotton), which they readily flash at anything that threatens them, including humans. Cottonmouths have a reputation as being aggressive snakes but that isn't the truth, they just stand their ground, meaning once threatened they tend to freeze, flash open their mouth, and rattle their tail eventhough they don't have actual rattles. To see a video of a cottonmouth flashing its bright white mouth at me, follow @tbfrost today #cottonmouth #snakes #snakesofinstagram #virginia

A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo) on Oct 13, 2017 at 4:02am PDT

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