Spring in Virginia is truly glorious – and I say that as someone who considers it my fourth favorite season (allergies, mud, rain) – even for me, there are delights to be savored.  Not least of the delights: the Bluebell Loop Trail at Bull Run-Occoquan Regional Park.  I’m sure it’s a pretty walk year-round, but during the one or two weeks per year when the bluebells are in season, it’s something very special indeed.

Shall we embark?  To get to the bluebells, you’ve first got to cross over a long boardwalk that takes you back, away from the road and into the woods.

Juuuuuuuust when you’re beginning to wonder where they are, they appear!  Thousands of bluebells, stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction.

As Peanut said: “It’s like being inside a Monet painting, Mommy!”

Just off the trail is a sweetly bubbling brook, straight out of the Hundred Acre Wood or Avonlea, with thousands more bluebells growing riotously all over the bank and back into the woods.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.  They can communicate the beauty of the trail far better than my poor words can.

Such sweetness.

And such gorgeousness!  We walked along slowly, savoring every glimpse of blue, because it’ll have to last us a year.  The bluebell season may be short-lived, but it’s a favorite spring tradition for us, and we’ll be visiting this trail every spring for as long as we live here.

Do you have a favorite annual hiking tradition?