Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park
Virginia
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
6.6 h fully dark
Hikes
Strenuous
🔴
Open today
Open
Entrance
Free entry
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley has a long and rich heritage that still inspires today. Native Americans first shaped the land, followed by colonists and settlers. The fertile valley became an important wheat-growing region in the 1800s. It also witnessed dramatic Civil War campaigns, including the Battle of Cedar Creek, a decisive Federal victory that helped bring the war to an end.
Activities
Topics
No entrance fee.
Hours & seasons
Public areas administered by the National Park Service— Morning Attack Trails, Claven Lane parking area, Vermont Monument property and parking area, and park headquarters— are open from sunrise to sunset.
Generally open:
winterspringsummerfallHours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 540-490-9569
✉ cebe_information@nps.govConditions
Weather now: ⛅ Partly cloudy, 90°F
🌦️ 93°/70°
🌦️ 91°/71°
🌦️ 97°/69°
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Things to do
Go to a Ranger-led Program
Stamp Your Passport To Your National Parks · <p>To visit all four places only to get stamps will take about 45 minutes.</p>
🔴 Tour the 1797 Manor House
Join a Star Party
Follow Trenches on the 19th Corps Trails · 2.4 mi
Be a Cedar Creek & Belle Grove Junior Ranger · <p>Complete as many activities as you would like. They can be completed in the park or even online. </p>
Visit the Battlefield Museum
Tour Cedar Creek Battlefield · 17.5 mi · <p>This 17.5-mile tour has 9 stops, and takes at least an hour. Extend your auto tour with a walk on the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/walk-morning-attack-trails.htm">Morning Attack Trails</a> or a visit to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/tour-belle-grove.htm">Belle Grove Plantation</a>.</p>
Visitor centers
Belle Grove Welcome Center
CCBF Museum & Visitor Center
NPS Visitor Center
Strasburg Visitor & Information Center
Accessibility
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
People & stories
Figures tied to Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park — each spans a cross-park journey.
Alexander Swift “Sandie” Pendleton
— Cedar Creek And Belle Grove National Historical Park, Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District, Civil WarAmasa Tracy
— Civil War, Battle Of Cedar Creek, Faces Of The Shenandoah ValleyBernard Bluecher Graves
— Battle Of Cedar Creek, Civil War Confederate Army, Civil WarCharles Russell Lowell
— Civil War, Battle Of Cedar Creek, Shenandoah Valley CampaignCornelius Baldwin Hite, Jr.
— Civil War, Belle Grove Plantation, Faces Of The Shenandoah ValleyDaniel P. Reigle
— Medal Of Honor, Battle Of Cedar Creek, Civil WarDwight L. Pond
— Civil War Union Army, Soldier, Battle Of Cedar CreekEdward "Ned" Hopson
— Civil War, Battle Of Cedar Creek, Faces Of The Shenandoah ValleyPassport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Belle Grove Welcome Center
🎫 CCBF Museum & Visitor Center
🎫 NPS Visitor Center
🎫 Strasburg Visitor & Information Center
🎫 Visitor Information Desk
Places to see
128th New York Monument
19th Corps Trenches
8th Vermont Monument
Belle Grove Plantation
Bowman's Mill Ford
Bowman-Hite Farm
Cedar Creek Battlefield
Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation Museum & Visitor Center
Charles Russell Lowell Monument
Enslaved Quarter Site
Gordon's Approach
Hayes's & Kitching's Lines
Audio & media
🎧 Stop 3: 128th New York Monument ↗ · 4 mintranscript
🎧 Stop 6: Mount Carmel Cemetery ↗ · 6 mintranscript
🎧 Stop 2: Thoburn's Redoubt ↗ · 7 mintranscript
🎧 Stop 4: Morning Attack Trails ↗ · 5 mintranscript
🎧 Stop 7: Miller's Mill ↗ · 2 mintranscript
🎬
🖼
Learn more
View recipients of the National Park Service Freeman Tilden Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to the practice of interpretation and education by NPS employees.
A combination of fertile soil, abundant water sources and a perfect climate made farming especially profitable to early settlers of the Valley.
Among those attending the 1920 monument dedication was Ramseur’s only child, a daughter who was only a few days old when her father died.
Belle Grove was Union headquarters, and thus was surrounded by hundreds of supply wagons, ambulances, and tents. As the Confederate advance neared the plantation manor house there was a scramble to evacuate them to safety.
African Americans lived, worked, built, and died in the Valley. Stories centered in what is today Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park spread across the Valley encompassing the lives of many.
The period 1730 to 1900 was Virginia’s “Age of Grain.” Economics, transportation, and industry made the Shenandoah Valley the most productive wheat producing area in the South. Belle Grove sat the height of an agricultural economy based on grain and slavery.
Sheridan marched his Army of the Shenandoah south, reaching Berryville on September 3, 1864. Confederates found them pitching camp and attacked with limited results. During the night, Early brought up his entire army but by daylight found the Federal position too strongly entrenched to attack. Early withdrew after dark on September 4 to Winchester.
The Federal victory at Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864 ended Confederate resistance in the Shenandoah Valley. Coming just three weeks before the presidential election, news of the victory boosted morale in the Northern states and helped carry Abraham Lincoln to a landslide reelection.
Ranger School
Park-grounded courses you can learn with the Ranger.
How Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historical Park connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
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