A Flood of Bluebells

Washington in springtime is most famous for its cherry blossoms, but I know something just as beautiful that you won’t have to share with 200,000 of your closest friends. Just a few miles outside the beltway on the banks of Bull Run are thousands of Virginia Bluebells, and they’re blooming right now.

Each April I keep an eye on the weather, waiting for the moment when the timing seems right. Just as the lilacs in my garden begin to bloom I drop whatever I’m doing and take a drive out to Hemlock Overlook Park, in Fairfax County. This virtually unknown park is where the bluebells live in vast colonies on the banks of Bull Run, and on many days I’ve had the place to myself—it seems very few people visit it regularly.

A walk of about a mile takes you downhill on a winding trail through tall trees. When the trail reaches the bottom you’ll find yourself in the narrow floodplain of the Occoquan River, or Bull Run as it’s known in its upper reaches. Everywhere along both banks are sky blue flowers—the bluebells. They grow in dense colonies of thousands of plants clustered together. The flowers themselves are tiny groups of bell-shaped blossoms, each as long as a man’s thumbnail. Hanging from the ends of delicate stems reaching shin high, they seem to float above their bright green leaves like a blue mist. It’s a magical sight on a sunny day, but on a cloudy day they take on even more mystery as their blue seems to deepen.

My husband and I went this spring with a little bit of trepidation. Last June our entire area was inundated with 13 inches of rain within three days. This was a hundred-year flood according to area weathermen, and it left many sections of the parks along the Occoquan scoured into sterility by raging high waters. We were very afraid the bluebells would have suffered, and we didn’t know what we’d find.

To our delight, the flowers seemed completely unharmed. The ground they grew from showed distinct signs of the flood, to be sure. Trees were down everywhere, and the earth was overlaid with a new layer of soft silty soil. Other portions of the river valley are still piled with debris from the storm, including trees tossed like tinker toys. But the bluebells were as thick and lovely as ever.

If you have the time, go now. The blooms last for about a week. After that they quickly fade and their foliage completely disappears. By late May there will be no sign they were ever there. Until next April.

Directions:
To reach Hemlock Overlook, take I-66 west to Route 123. Go south on 123 to Clifton Road, turn right on Clifton Road and drive 3.7 miles. Turn left on Yates Ford Road and follow it down hill all the way to the park entrance. At the park entrance is an outdoor education center which is open by reservation only, but the trails are open to the public daily, with no entrance fee. Park at the small gravel parking lot near the trail head, and start walking down the hill. About a quarter mile along the trail, you’ll see a trail blazed with a red painted horseshoe turn off to the left. Follow this trail through the forest as it winds gradually down towards the river.