Belle Isle

A 54-acre island in the middle of the James, reached by a pedestrian bridge slung underneath the Lee Bridge — which means you walk out over class III and IV whitewater to get there. Richmond is the only major American city with rapids of that grade inside its limits.

The island is a layered ruin: a nail works and ironworks from the early 1800s, a hydroelectric plant, a granite quarry now flooded, and a Civil War prison camp that held thousands of Union soldiers in open ground. Trails loop past all of it, half-swallowed by trees and covered in graffiti. On warm days the flat granite slabs along the south shore fill with people sunbathing and wading in the river.

Practical: free, part of the James River Park System, open dawn to dusk. Water shoes help; the current is stronger than it looks and the rocks are slick. No facilities to speak of.