Glenn6870 

Will be down in VA Beach in a few weeks, curious about some of the riding. We'll be staying just west of First Landing State Park. Couple of questions:

Are you able to ride your bike into Fort Story? I realize IF you are, you'll need to show ID, but I'm curious if you can ride in there at all, ( Non-Military ). I've seen conflicting answers. I know that the Lighthouse is accessible, but it sounds like you drive into the gate, and they bus you over to it. But i've seen other places on the web say "yes you can ride", but not sure if they meant Military/Former Military, or general public. Looking for RECENT first hand experience. i'd love to ride through there, but i'm thinking that is a No-Go. Worst case scenario is to ride through First Landing State Park, since i have Gravel bike, but i wanted to try and ride one way through the Fort and the other way through the Park.

Since I have a Gravel bike and was interested in going down and parking car at Sandbridge Beach and then riding into Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. Seem like a fair number of gravel trails/roads. Anyone have any experience with that area? The trails look like they go all the way down to the NC border, but at some point it looks like trails may end up getting pretty sandy, too sandy for a Gravel bike. Any thoughts?

Am i missing any must see areas? Will only have two riding days while i'm there.

TIA

Jjbailey930

Hi - I can give you some recent experience on your second part. We just came back from a week in Sandbridge. I brought my MTB which I rode down to Back Bay a couple of times. The trails in the park are well maintained, smooth, packed gravel. During the week it was not very crowded. I wished I brought my roadie with 32 tires which would have been perfect. Of the 2 main roads Sandpiper has “bike lane”. Sandfiddler is pretty narrow. I did see some TT bikes on the road and there is a VA Beach 50 mile circuit but the roads are pretty twisty and narrow. Have fun!