Mason Neck State Park is located in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

. The park is on a peninsula formed by Pohick Bay on the north,

Belmont Bay Belmont Bay is a body of water at the mouth of the Occoquan River between Fairfax and Prince William counties, Virginia. The bay covers about . The bay adjoins the Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge and Mason Neck State Park on ...

on the south and the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

to the east. The park has an area of and is home to

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

s, and many other types of wildlife. The park also contains white-tailed deer and many species of lichen. Mason Neck State Park is one of the best locations to view bald eagles in northern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Sightings are most common in the mornings and evenings. The park is day-use only, and maintains a visitors center that is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mason Neck State Park has cultural significance with two sites on the state and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and approximately thirty other identified archaeological sites. The Taft archaeological site was listed in 2004 and the Lexington site was listed in 2013.

References

External links

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation: Mason Neck State Park
* {{authority control State parks of Virginia Parks in Fairfax County, Virginia Protected areas established in 1985 Protected areas of Fairfax County, Virginia