Talk:Hog Island Wildlife Management Area

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Access difficulties resolved

Could not visit the site last night nor today. Obviously, a nuclear power plant is critical infrastructure, and some security check is necessary. However the website method suggested by DominionEnergy employees did not work, although after divulging personal information (including a credit card number) I now have a GoOutdoorsVirginia account, which is useless. No error messages after confirming the information and acknowledging the purchase is nonrefundable. I haven't been able to check my credit card bill yet, but logging in on another device showed the daypass order for today still in my shopping cart. The website also contains a search feature for local vendors, but the only vendor in Surry County is listed as Bacon's Castle, which has reduced hours. Nonetheless, before noon two Preservation Virginia employees at Bacon's Castle denied that such passes are available, and both had heard similar complaints from others. No one at the local public library, nearby Chippokes State Park (run by another Virginia agency), nor two local stores knew of anyone who had been able to visit Hog Island (which has historic sites as well as hiking and birding opportunities) for more than two decades, due to DominionEnergy's gatekeeping.Jweaver28 (talk) 19:19, 8 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Visited the site last weekend, though I could not get a day access permit through a local northern Virginia DMV office listed on the GoOutdoorsVirginia website. The local tourism office has the same link, and suggests a year-pass, which seems no longer available.

Turns out the (unsigned) gas station next to the (well-signed) Bacon's Castle Baptist Church has the correct link (as well as makes available both human snacks and fishing bait for purchase). So they took my Virginia drivers license and processed me as a nonresident (LOL) after I paid the $4, then I drove up to the DominionEnergy checkpoint and showed both the computer printout and my drivers license. Security guards checked my car for weapons, etc. (including underneath), and I drove in. Nice beachfront, and I saw egrets or herons as well as osprey and I think bald eagles, though I'm not much of a birder and don't know which of the two pairs who glided overhead was which. Saw several fishermen, but the only catch I saw in my brief time there was by an waterbird (with a greatly swollen neck). No visible ruins, though the peninsula's end (Hog Island) has a few modern structures as well as farmed fields.

I stopped by Chippokes State Park on my return and told a ranger about the correct local vendor, so others won't get the same runaround. Gas station posted hours begin well before dawn, but seem to end well before sunset in the summertime. They're a lot longer than the official Bacon's Castle gift shop, which I didn't visit for a similar heads up because of time issues.Jweaver28 (talk) 16:00, 18 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]