Take a Walk at Ivy Creek
North Field Trail
Virginia's Historic Natural Landscape
The North Field Trail at the Ivy Creek Natural Area is like a walk through history. Starting on the trail with the lavender posts note:
1. The picturesque barn to your left was built by Conly Greer in the 1930s as a state-of-the-art facility.
2. Look around for the beautiful Eastern Bluebird brought back from a devastating drop in population levels.
3. As you enter the trail, note the native trees found along the edge such as sassafras, white oak, and black locust.
4. The field here is a fine example of the native grasses that were found throughout Virginia hundreds of years ago, before settlers replaced them with European grasses like fescue.
5. Enter the woods at the end of the field, and step back in time to when the Piedmont forest was primarily oak and hickory.
6. Halfway along this trail, take a side trip to the Hydraulic Mills overlook to see where the village of Hydraulic once stood. The site was inundated when the reservoir was created in 1966.
7. As you leave the forest and walk back along the western edge of the field, look for the impact of three relative newcomers to the Virginia landscape, asiatic bittersweet, ailanthus, and autumn olive.
In the North Field
photo by Dede Smith
