Trip Idea

Explore Cedar Creek Battlefield

Multiple Parks

Tall green corn and round hay bales sprawl across historic plantation fields.
Duration Full Day
Topic(s) Enslavement, Plantations, Monuments and Memorials, Roads, Routes and Highways, Civil War, Trails, Colonization and Settlement, Scenic Views, Farming and Agriculture, Foothills, Plains and Valleys, Battlefields, Caves, Caverns and Karst, Forests and Woodlands, Geology, Architecture and Building more »
Activities Junior Ranger Program, Front-Country Hiking, Guided Tours, Museum Exhibits, Self-Guided Tours - Auto, Self-Guided Tours - Walking more »
Type Educational, Indoors, Outdoors, Road Trip, Group Friendly
Parks Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
Activities
  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Make Your First Stop at the Visitor Center
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Museum Exhibits
    • Pets: No
    • Location: 7712 Main Street, Middletown, Virginia
    • Duration: 30–60 Minutes
    A national park visitor center occupies a store front in a brick commercial building.

    Start at the Visitor Center, where park rangers and volunteers can help plan your visit.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Be a Cedar Creek & Belle Grove Junior Ranger
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Junior Ranger Program
    • Age: 1–99 years old
    • Pets: Yes with Restrictions
    • Location: Visitor Center or Online
    • Duration: 15–60 Minutes
    • Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day
    Painting of a large farm with rolling hills. Cedar Creek and Belle Grove NHP Junior Ranger

    The Junior Ranger program helps kids explore, learn about, and protect Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. Anyone can become a Junior Ranger by completing activities during a visit to the park.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Visit the Battlefield Museum
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Museum Exhibits
    • Pets: No
    • Location: Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation Museum & Visitor Center
    • Duration: 30–60 Minutes
    • Time of Day: Day
    A white farmhouse-like building stands on a rural property with a large sign in front.

    The Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation Museum and Visitor Center building houses its exhibits, book and gift shop, and visitor services.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Tour Cedar Creek Battlefield
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Self-Guided Tours - Auto
    • Pets: Yes
    • Location: Visitor Center
    • Duration: 1–3 Hours
    • Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day
    A road sign labeled auto tour 6 marks a tour stop and exhibit by a cemetery.

    Follow the Battle of Cedar Creek on a self-guided driving tour, from where the Confederate soldiers surprised the sleeping Federal camps in the foggy dawn of October 19, 1864 to the final counterattack late that afternoon. This 17.5-mile tour has 9 stops.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Follow Trenches on the 19th Corps Trails
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Front-Country Hiking
    • Pets: Yes
    • Location: 19th Corps Trails
    • Duration: 30–120 Minutes
    • Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day
    Sun shines through trees onto a trail exhibit sign and a bench.

    Woodland trails follow a line of trenches built by the US 19th Corps in the fall of 1864. They connect the 128th New York Monument with Belle Grove Plantation. Remnants of trenches and earthworks are still visible along the trails. The trails are on lands managed by Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation (CCBF) and Belle Grove, Inc. 

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Walk the Morning Attack Trails
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Self-Guided Tours - Walking
    • Pets: Yes
    • Location: 8739 Valley Pike
    • Duration: 30–60 Minutes
    • Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day
    A mountain looms behind a grass field with mowed trails and a belt of trees.

    The three trails combined are 1.7 miles long. All three are on national park land. Pick up a free trail guide at the trail entrances or at the Visitor Center. The guide follows numbered stops marked on the trails.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Visit Belle Grove
    • Activity Fee: Yes
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Guided Tours
    • Pets: No
    • Location: Belle Grove Plantation
    • Duration: 1–2 Hours
    • Season: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day
    The rising sun lights the clouds over an antebellum stone mansion with a white portico.

    Belle Grove’s expert volunteer docents and staff lead guided tours of the 1797 Manor House. Guided tours typically last between 45 minutes and one hour. Self-guided brochures of the grounds and outdoor signs interpret the property.

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    Go to a Ranger-led Program
    • Activity Fee: No (Entrance fees may apply)
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Guided Tours
    • Pets: Yes
    • Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
    • Time of Day: Day, Dusk
    A ranger with visitors on a grass field points past a US flag held by a Civil War reenactor.

    The National Park Service offers ranger-led programs from April to October. Topics may include the peopling and rich cultural history of the Shenandoah Valley, including the Civil War and Battle of Cedar Creek. 

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  • Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park

    See Local History Exhibits & Civil War Artifacts
    • Activity Fee: Yes
    • Reservations: No
    • Activity: Museum Exhibits
    • Pets: Yes with Restrictions
    • Location: Strasburg Visitor & Information Center
    • Duration: 1–2 Hours
    • Time of Day: Day
    A museum exhibit hall has a battlefield diorama and mural painting.

    The Strasburg Museum at Hupp's Hill, inside the Strasburg Visitor and Information Center, displays local history exhibits alongside battlefield artifacts from the Kehoe collection. The museum exhibits and films in the theater tell of the war-torn Shenandoah Valley of 1864: battles fought by soldiers and hardships endured by civilians.

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Last updated: August 11, 2023