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Readers’ Choice: Best Place to Commune With Nature in Fairfax County

Where do you go to get away from it all?

 

Update: You nominated eleven parks and trails across Fairfax County, and now, four have moved on to the voting round of Patch's Readers' Choice 2012.

Here's your chance to put your money (er — vote) where your mouth is. Cast a vote for Claude Moore Colonial Farm, Huntley Meadow, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens or Burke Lake Park to help crown a winner.

Voting opens July 23 and continues through 11:59 p.m. Aug. 17. Only one vote per user — tell your friends and family to log on to pick their favorite, too!

Original: From idling in Beltway traffic to power lunches, meetings with clients and running errands, sometimes it’s just nice to get away from it all — even if you do it close by.

We want to know where you go in Fairfax County to commune with nature and get away from the noise, the crowds and the cars that come with living in Northern Virginia.

We’ll keep accepting nominations through July 9. After that, nominations will be closed and we’ll start the voting, so make sure to get in your favorites now.

All you need to do to nominate a place is to add it in the comments below. If you already see the location you want to nominate, make sure to add your comment about why it should be included, because we may not be able to add all of them to our poll and we want to make sure the top ones make it into the poll.

Thanks for participating!

Fairfax County Patch sites are on Facebook (fan Patch in Fairfax County) and on Twitter @FairfaxCoPatch.

  • Where is the best place to commune with nature in Fairfax County?

    (Voting has been closed for this question)
    • Claude Moore Colonial Farm
        5 (8%)
    • Huntley Meadow
        12 (20%)
    • Burke Lake Park
        19 (31%)
    • Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
        24 (40%)
    Total votes: 60
  • Your vote will only count once. This is not a scientific poll. View Results Vote!
Related Topics: Readers' Choice Services

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Don Joy

8:51 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Runnymede rules!!! Yet not even on the list...travesty

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Carol Bruce

4:11 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Guess my nomination didn't count... :(
But Runnymede is still the best place to commune with nature, which is the topic.
It's not the best place for a history lesson or a Fair, but when it comes to just getting out and appreciating our natural environment it cannot be beat!

Jody Frisch

2:45 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm - Beautiful, relaxing, fascinating and historic!

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Deborah Peterson

6:42 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

I LOVE the Claude Moore Colonial Farm!

Rebecca

7:07 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012

Any of the parks in the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.

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Trish Strat

6:00 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Hemlock Overlook Regional Park

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Elissa

3:17 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm has it all!

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Elissa

3:17 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Super place, super people.

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Maureen Newton

3:22 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm - fun family activities, wonderful smells and tastes on Market Fair days, relax into yesteryear! Great place for children and young people to volunteer!!

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Kathy Kerr

3:55 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is so calming. The authentic colonial farm is surrounded by beautiful woods. Interesting animals and seasonal activities. Their Colonial Market Fairs are fantastic--educational but great fun for adults and kids. The Farm is also a great place to volunteer for both kids and adults.

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Paula Goughnour

5:06 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is a great way to enjoy nature by walking the shady paths, and to see Nature at work supporting the lives of the reanactors of 1771.

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Laurie Dodd

5:37 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm! The Market Fairs are such fun for families with young children. The next one is July 21 and 22!

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Nancy

7:20 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is a wonderful place! What better place to get close to nature than seeing how people lived so simply in 1771, so connected to the elements and to the natural surroundings of the area.

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Kathleen Fugle

8:51 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is one of our family's favorite places. There, you are immersed in a natural environment where children can touch, explore, imagine, and learn about Virginia's agricultural past. We love the way it reminds us to respect, care for, and live harmoniously with nature.

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Katherine Rogers

9:30 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is soooo beautiful. Best of all - you learn so much about our country's beginnings -- so much hard work for a poor tennant farm family -- and all of this in such a magical, step back in time, natural environment. It is so beautiful --- it takes your breath away.

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Emily Groeneveld

10:08 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is a fantastic place! Even though my family moved four years ago and it is now a two or three day drive to Virginia, I still volunteer most summers at the Market Fairs. The woods surrounding Claude Moore are beautiful- the perfect place to commune with nature.

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Alyssa Eversmeyer

12:53 am on Friday, June 22, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm. As a teenager who barely sees the sun, a lot of the time that I actually do spend outside is spent volunteering at the farm, working the earth with an 18th-century hoe until I get blisters and enjoying the sunlight and the soft breezes that somehow manage to cool me off through several layers of linen. The adult visitors and children that converse with as a "farm child" seem equally entranced by the simplistic beauty of the farm. For me there is no better escape from the noise of everyday life.

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Brenda Musser

8:03 am on Friday, June 22, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm--awesome!

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Benjamin

8:31 am on Friday, June 22, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is amazing. The scenery is beautiful and you are away from all your electronics so it is easier to "Commune with nature"

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Alyssa

8:37 am on Friday, June 22, 2012

We love Claude Moore Colonial Farm! It is so peaceful and a great place to escape to and enjoy nature.

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Susan Leader

11:02 am on Friday, June 22, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is fabulous. You can enjoy nature and learn about the history of the United States in a scenic and peaceful place.

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Tina Adler

2:42 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012

I agree! I love Claude Moore Colonial Farm! A great combo of really peaceful natural setting with a little history tossed in.

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Earl Q Smith

10:08 am on Monday, June 25, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm--awesome! I strongly support this wonderful, peaceful place, in the middle of too much people population. Faith, the long horned cow, is named after my mother, also born on a farm still in the family. Market Faires have yummy colonial like food and beverages. A loaf of bread, cheese, and ale sustain life while shopping at the commodity stalls, and watching the informative demonstrations of woodworking, iron working, and music making. The Children's Corner has plenty of activities to keep my young grand children occupied. More information is available at their web site: http://1771.org/.

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jane

9:27 am on Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Claude Moore Colonial Farm is wonderful! Keeping NOVA teens giving back and connected to nature--can't beat that!

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ET1221

1:25 am on Friday, June 29, 2012

Guess I need to check out Claude Moore Colonial Farm, but we love Huntley Meadows locally with its wetlands, lookouts and boardwalk style paths throughout. Beaver dams, herons, red-winged blackbirds, cattails and large turtles... the quiet hum of nature is serene.

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Tierney

8:44 am on Friday, July 6, 2012

Without a doubt, Huntley Meadows. And sunsets at Riverside Park.

Mar

9:48 am on Friday, June 29, 2012

Woodlawn Stables! Which is currently threatened by a poorly conceived widening proposal! See Save Woodlawn Stables for how you can help by July 9th!

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Drew

4:17 pm on Monday, July 2, 2012

Paradise Springs Winery

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Isle D Belle

9:27 am on Friday, July 6, 2012

Huntley Meadows Park. I have seen the most exciting things there: A stampede of at least 12 deer no more than 20 feet in front of me across the path I was walking on with my son; snakes intertwined and mating; 5-6 turtles sunning themselves on a dead branch in the afternoon; a beaver just hanging out in the shade and lots and lots of frogs.

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JoAnne Norton

10:49 am on Friday, July 6, 2012

Hunters Woods in Hunters Woods!

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Alden

2:26 pm on Monday, July 9, 2012

The GW Parkway trails are ideal for this. With the Potomac to the east, historic Mount Vernon to the south and the majesty that is nature at its best all around, even the cars whizzing by can't help but make you feel serene and relaxed.

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Groovis Maximus

6:21 pm on Monday, July 9, 2012

Meadowlark Gardens is a wonderful spot to enjoy nature. There's nothing like sitting at the edge of a quiet pond in a comfy Adirondack chair. It's a great place to see many types of birds as well as being a fabulous garden.

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Diane

6:26 pm on Friday, August 17, 2012

Love Huntley Meadows. So grateful that it is nearby. I have seen 3 turkeys run across the path, a fox, and deer. Oh, yes, and snakes....My dog loves it.

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lisa A

1:46 am on Saturday, August 18, 2012

Definatley my backyard. I adore nature and just sitting in my backyard I am visited by deer, foxes, raccoons, possums, groundhogs, chipmunks, squirrels, turtles, hawks, humming birds, frogs, flying squirrels and we have one very special all black squirrel. So I am very content just walking out my back door.

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