Dog Beach: Downs Park

After the debacle of last week's hike, I am starting a new quest to find the best dog beaches in the area.  Unfortunately they will all be in MD, at least couple hour's drive.  Still, at least beaches will be cool for Millie, the water won't be so nasty, and it won't require much exertion on my part.  So the first beach I checked out was the dog beach at Downs Park.  It's a good 2 hours from Ashburn.  I picked up Milinda since she's in MD, and the three of us were on our merry way.  Once at the park, we had to pay a $6 fee to get in (kinda steep for a park).  There are no signs to the dog beach until you reach the end of the road, park, and get on the trail.

The beach itself was very small and nasty.  When it wasn't so crowded, it was find, but there were waves of humans and doggies coming and going often.  The beach was nasty because there were lots of dead fish here and there.  The water was also clogged a bit with kelp or something.  Then there's the dogs doing their business on the beach.  Nasty nasty nasty, but Millie had good time fetching the ball out of the water.  The one nice thing about this beach is that there is shade.  We brought some fold out chairs with us and enjoyed just being near water.  I spent most of my time attending to Millie though, either playing with her or making sure she doesn't eat some of that nasty fish here and there.  It was a worthwhile visit to give Millie the exercise she needs and to spend some time outdoors.  I may do it again, but I will look for a better dog beach first.

Pros: shade, rinse station

Cons: small, dead fish