Cute little park tucked away in Louisa. It is nice that is away from the Main Roads. There are…read morehouses along it though so it could get noisy when people are doing yard work. It looks like a good spot to bring the kids. If you are passing through town it is a nice place to get out a stretch your legs.

Had such a great visit here, the roads were incredibly well kept!! Every turn offered a new…read moreperspective and view of the mountains!! The pull offs to take photos and take in the view felt like a cheat code to seeing the parks beauty without putting in the work to hike for a view point, making this part of the national park incredibly accessible to those who's mobility is not up to par for a long hike.

We absolutely loved this drive. You could honestly stay in the car the whole time and see some…read moregreat views. We didn't though - stopped and did some hiking but our guidebooks were good about noting the mile markers so you could try to plan it out. They had somewhat clear mile markers on the side of the road and it was fairly easy sailing the whole day. As the park got busier, it was nice to have the wayside lots to break things up a bit. Very easy to navigate.

My 20-month-old daughter LOVED this park. It's across the street from an amazing coffee shop…read more(Shenandoah Joe) and has several main areas- a playground, a basketball court, a swing set area, and a pool. The playground is always open and it's built for slightly older kids. However, the bright blue and yellows allured our 20-month-old there and she loved it. She was able to climb to the second level and go down the slides and steer the toy wheel. The third level requires climbing a ladder, but if you can get your kid to go up, it's worth it. They have two larger slides that adults would enjoy too!

This park has a basket ball court, swings and a play area for little ones. There is a pool that…read morelooks like it would be fun for kids when it is open as it has a mini water slide. Some benches under trees. Located across the street from a Shenandoah Joe's coffee house.

I love this park! On nice days I often walk over here after visiting the central library. My family…read morecalls it the "dizzy park" because so many things here spin around. Pros: small, contained park with plenty of shade and benches around the perimeter. The playground structure is fairly new and well maintained. There is also a small waterfall fountain that's on in the summer months that's perfect for small toddlers to play in. Cons: tiny public parking lot, no public restroom, the higher slide could do with more of a railing around the platform, and the surrounding pre schools use the park around 11:30am on weekdays so it gets very crowded at that time.

It was a tiny park. Two play areas for children of varying ages, swings, see-saw for three, and…read moreplenty of benches for parents around the perimeter. There were only four other children at the park which has its pro's and con's. The good thing is there weren't so many kids, that you couldn't see pass the throng to find your own. The bad part is they were all boys and not interested in playing with my hyper-friendly little girl . . . at least I hope that's why they ignored her completely. I was glad to come to the park because we'd passed it so many times, I was equally happy to leave. Perhaps if I had planned a play date with another kid, it would have been different. Nutshell: this isn't the place for a kiddie connection.

Love that you can walk the creek, tons of space, and lots of fun for the kids and the dogs!read more

This is one of Culpeper County's parks. It is located just north of Route 3. There is a children's…read moreplayground and a cannon at the entrance. Off to the right is a gravel road that runs along the river with a few pullouts. The first pullout is for a handicapped access picnic table. There is a larger picnic area off to left. Along the river for the first part you may smell cow poop as there is a farm on the other side of the river and the top side of the park. If you drive further back or hang out on the left side this shouldn't be a problem. If you are in the area or traveling through it is a good place to chill out for awhile.

This park used to be our neighborhood park. We lived just down the road, so when my husband and I…read morefirst moved to the neighborhood, we would walk down and intersect with the Rivanna River trail which goes through Azalea park. Or we would loop around the garden plots that are down there at the far end of the park and see what folks were growing. Or we would go use the big spread of grass to throw the frisbee around. The playground is pretty cool, too. (Admittedly, around sunset when the kiddies had all gone in for dinner and bath time, we'd utilize the freedom and play on some of the playground equipment--lots of exciting things you can spin on/in!) Kid (and "big kid") approved. Then we had a baby, so I would stroll the babe down to the park and loop around the park's paths and back home, or I would sit on a swing and hold my babe and swing with him for a bit. Ah, the circle of life. Now we've moved and I already kinda miss Azalea Park. (Note: There's also a dog park; just a fairly large gated in area of grass where you can let your dog off the leash.)

Azalea is our preferred dog park in Charlottesville. It has two large fenced-in areas that share a…read morefenced entry pen. We bring our sheepdog Appa here at least once a week when the weather is cool/cold enough for him, less often in the summer (Charlottesville's summer heat is pretty brutal on our fluff monster). In all of our visits we've only run into a few dogs that aren't very well socialized and are aggressive towards other dogs (we've encountered this multiple times at Darden Towe). For the most part all of the owners are very responsible, friendly, and approachable and their dogs follow their example. There are always tennis balls laying around that are up for grabs, several picnic tables for humans (and sometimes for dogs to climb on), poop bags/trash cans, and water bowls (and a pump to fill them). Overall it has just about everything you could need. The one major downside about Azalea's dog park is that it has very little shade. There's a single large tree on the west side that casts some decent shade in the evening during the summer, but for the most part the sun scorches down and there's no hiding from it. It would be fantastic if the town could plant a few more trees here. There's plenty of parking, and trails and a stream nearby. Appa's a better socialized dog thanks to Azalea. We're very glad we found this park.

After staying overnight at the Big Meadows Lodge, we stopped in a second time at the Harry F. Byrd…read moreSr. Visitor Center to get a few more recommendations from the Park Rangers on a hike we could do that day before making the long drive back home to Georgia. Among her recommendations, we chose Doyles River Falls Hike because it was south of where we were, which is the direction we needed to go back home. The real incentive was the two waterfalls on the trail. Having lived in Hawaii for 3 years and hiking on a weekly, if not, on a daily basis, I really missed the mountains and especially the waterfalls hikes! Might as well get all the waterfalls in while we can, because the only waterfall I have found in Savannah is at Big Bass Pro Shop LOL. If you know of any others in Savannah, please do tell! - Trail Description - Doyles River Falls Hike is found on Mile Marker 81.1, just after the Loft Mountain Wayside & Camp Store. Distance - 3.3 miles RT Elevation Gain - 1189 ft Level - Moderate, downhill first, uphill on the way back, so keep that in mind. Multiple stream crossings (none that we got our feet wet in). It's a well maintained trail, mostly shaded, but beware of the sharp loose rocks throughout the trail. We went on a day after it rained and some parts were pretty slippery. There is a spring that you come across at the beginning, but make sure to boil it if you are going to consume it. There are two waterfalls on this trail (approx. 20 ft and 60 ft) and also a bonus waterfall. You will arrive at the bonus waterfall first and you might think that it is the Upper Falls, but the Upper Falls is actually the next one as you continue and the Lower is after the Upper Falls. The bonus falls is probably about 10 ft high and you can easily step into the pool of water that it falls into. Just be sure to read the etched markings on the cement posts to guide you. The Upper Falls (28 ft) has 2 tiers of falls, with large boulders to get to it from the path. The Lower Falls (63 ft) has about 3 tiers of falls. It's pretty tricky to get down to this one. Most climbed down the pretty steep way which I would suggest climbing down with extreme caution. We have small kids, so we decided to go down a little further (not much further) on the trail and then climb down (it was still pretty steep), and then crossed over on the water to get to a small patch of pebbly rocks to look at the waterfall (on the right side, if you're looking at the waterfall). There was a huge tree that fell over about three quarters of the way up the waterfall and it was difficult to get a whole shot, but what can you do about Mother Nature? She does what she wants! It's all part of the charm. - Kiddos - Our kids are still young, but they did it no problem. However, just a note, they lived in Hawaii most of their lives and started hiking at an early age. and did some pretty advanced trails on their own by the time we left Hawaii. Some of the parts of this trail has steep drop offs. On the way there, you're going downhill, so just watch your kids that they don't pick up speed and lose control. Bonus - The Appalachian Trail (AT) crosses over at the trailhead of Doyles River Falls Hike, so at least you can put your two feet on it and say you were on it! I will be back for you AT! I'm sure you can't go wrong with any of the hikes in Shenandoah National Park and I wish we had had more time or even lived close by, but we did two waterfall hikes during our time in Shenandoah and my heart is full, at least for a little while, to have seen another beautiful waterfall!

So pretty a hike! Creek crossings are beautiful and a great spot to cool down. The falls, upper and…read morelower, and great photo spots as well. You will need to remember as you hike downhill all the way in that the hike out is going to be rough, and uphill all the way. There is a great vine to swing on about 1/3 of the way down.

It's a great park, lots of fun for the kids even teenagers. Only problem we had was it's a public…read morearea and the pavilion is free to the public and the other people that were there were mean to my 1 year old daughter. No one wanted to share the swings, they hogged literally almost everything there. So she had to just enjoy herself running around the park in the grassy area. I wish it didn't have such nasty people because it's amazing to be free. I gave it two stars only because of the people that were being mean to my daughter.

This is a nice splash pad/park combo. Both areas are clean…read moreand well maintained. The splash pad has several fun features for kids and my 10 month old enjoyed it as well. There is a pavilion with picnic benches under it beside the park as well as a large grassy area offering ample sitting room. There are 2 separate playgrounds, one for 5 and under and one for the older kids. Just be careful when kids go back and forth from splash pad to playground because I have heard a couple stories of children slipping on the metal playground structures when wet, which could obviously be dangerous. One thing I do like about the playground is that the ground is the soft rubbery stuff and not pebbles or mulch, so my little one can crawl around as well. One thing that would make the playground better is if it was covered. Unless it's overcast or evening, the structures probably get too hot to use during the summer. Overall a very nice and fun place for the kids to burn some energy!