How to Celebrate Great Outdoors Month
June is nationally recognized as the month to celebrate our great outdoors. Governor Youngkin has once again joined Governors across the country and proclaimed June as Great Outdoors Month in Virginia, too.
Great Outdoors Month is all about enjoying and celebrating our favorite outdoor places. In Virginia, we are blessed with an abundance of diverse outdoor spaces to enjoy, from neighborhood to state to national parks, natural area preserves, wildlife management areas, regional trails, and rivers. Near or far, we are celebrating all of the places where we can walk, run, hike, camp, bike, paddle, fish, hunt, watch wildlife, and just simply enjoy being in nature.
Share your pictures of Virginia’s great outdoors
Show us how you celebrated Great Outdoors Month by submitting your photos to our annual Conservation Photo Contest. We want to see the best places and ways to get outside, whatever that means for you. You can submit your photos by July 12th to be considered for the photo contest and featured in the Our Common Agenda Environmental Briefing Book. Check out the sneak peek of submissions below to get inspired!
Learning how to fly fish. Photo by Sara Davis.
Cycling on the Virginia Creeper Trail Cyclist. Photo by Patti Black.
Stand Up Paddle Boarding on the Chesapeake Bay near Virginia Beach. Photo by Sue Mangan.
Visiting Burnside Farm in Nokesville, VA to walk through sunflower fields. Photo by T. Anthony Harding.
Playing in the surf at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach. Photo by Kathleen Trace.
Hiking the Mendota Trail in Washington County, VA. Photo by Lucas Manweiler.