I enjoy county counting but it becomes increasingly difficult to reach new counties as my count increases. That’s why I began a sub-variant involving overnight counties. You see it counts “more” by my arbitrary rules if I spend an entire night there instead of simply passing through. That’s because it involves a tangible financial commitment, namely the price of accommodations, meals and attractions. It also lets me interact with local residents and get the true flavor of a place.
So I set my sights on Culpeper County, Virginia (map) during the recent Presidents Day holiday weekend. Completely irrelevant: the U.S. Federal government still calls it Washington’s Birthday for some antiquated reason even though everyone else calls it Presidents Day. But whatever.
I’ve driven through Culpeper County, I don’t know, maybe a hundred or more times on the way between Northern Virginia and Charlottesville. However, I don’t recall ever actually stopping in Culpeper, not even for gas. It’s just another pass-through place as I travel along Route 29 on the way to somewhere else. But it came up as a good option as I focused on the overnight county thing; something interesting nearby but not too close, like my earlier visit to St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
Saturday
We decided to do this as a Saturday – Monday thing because of the holiday. However, someone could probably replicate this on a normal Friday – Sunday weekend too.
We left home after lunch on Saturday for a leisurely drive lasting just over an hour. There are plenty of accommodations of various kinds in Culpeper, and we chose an Airbnb occupying the basement level of a home. That gave us a lot more square footage than a typical hotel room and a bunch more privacy than a typical Bed and Breakfast.
Far Gohn Brewing
It rained heavy and frigid that February day, just a couple of degrees above freezing. That made walking around pretty miserable so we didn’t explore much the first day. Rather, we walked straight over to Far Gohn Brewing, which quickly became our cozy rainy-day hideaway for the middle afternoon (map).
So, the usual caveat applies. My wife and I split a flight, which generally involves four or five 4 ounce taster-sized glasses. Do the math. That’s less than a standard beer each. I’ll mention that right up-front because we went to multiple breweries this weekend and we tried a lot of different beers, but we never approached excessive. This is about tastes and experiences not the buzz.
Beer Hound Brewery
Next up, and practically next door, we found Beer Hound Brewery (map). This was a larger, more open space than Far Gohn, but equally lively. We sat at the bar and chatted with some of the staff, and then we started getting hungry. Oh, and I hit a new milestone on my beer list: this was brewery number 725.
Both of the breweries offered a bar food menu but we wanted something more substantial. Culpeper has some lovely restaurants and we chose one of the better ones, then we went home and went to bed early. It was the end of a tough week and I needed some rest.
Sunday
The heavy rain continued all night but it blew out by noon, and the new weather front brought bright sunshine and extreme wind. The temperature also got freakishly warm for mid-February, topping out at about 60° Fahrenheit (16° Celsius).
We mapped out a rather casual day, with a couple more breweries and slices of local history, with interludes of walking.
Old House Vineyards, Brewery & Distillery
We left town and headed into rural Culpeper County right around lunchtime, driving through puddles and even along a potholed gravel road for the last stretch. It was time for our first farm destination, and wow, they packed a lot of options into Old House Vineyard, Brewery and Distillery. They even had a wedding venue which, I guess, makes it easy to get from the ceremony to the reception. But we’ve been married for a very long time and only the brewery part interested us.
Most of the other patrons focused on wine and that probably made us the outliers. We never ventured over to the distillery either. So we selected another beer flight to accompany a comfortably filling lunch. Then we headed outdoors into the wind.
Brandy Station Battlefield
Did you know there was a fairly sizable Civil War battle in Culpeper County? It would be notable in many parts of the country but not so much here. Virginia has a lot of famous battlefields and this one gets a little lost in the shuffle. Nonetheless, the Battle of Brandy Station, which happened on June 9, 1863 at the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign, involved 20,000 soldiers mostly on horseback. It was the largest cavalry battle ever to occur in the United States.
The battlefield has been preserved in several non-contiguous units within the Culpeper Battlefields State Park. However it doesn’t have nearly the same level of amenities as say, the nearby Manassas or Antietam battlefields. It’s mostly unimproved open fields with a few basic trails and a scattering of interpretive signs. We visited three of the units out near the Culpeper Regional Airport: Buford’s Knoll; St. James Church; and Fleetwood Hill.
I also wanted to visit the Graffiti House — the only nearby site listed in the Twelve Mile Circle Complete Index — but it was closed. Maybe next time.
Old Trade Brewery & Cidery
After being blown around the open fields for a couple of hours we wisely move back indoors. We found another farm brewery, Old Trade Brewery & Cidery. It felt like the wind was going to blow the place to the ground but everything held steady and eventually the breeze began to subside. We stuck to the beer but we did try one taster glass of the cider, which was actually made from pears rather than apples. Technically that meant it wasn’t a cider but a perry, which seemed like an appropriate name.
Walk About Town
Then we went back into town and took a stroll through the historic district, culminating at Culpeper National Cemetery. The Battle of Brandy Station ended in something of a draw, although Confederate forces retained the field afterwards. They hastily buried the dead in makeshift graves where people fell. The cemetery opened in the 1870’s and included casualties reinterred from the battlefield, many of them unknown soldiers. Veterans from latter eras then began to select the cemetery as their final resting place, and burials continue to today.
By this time the sun began to sink and we had one final dinner in town. Sunday night was a light quieter than Saturday and most restaurants were closed. But we found a nice dining spot and we called it another early evening.
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