Eighth graders travel to Shenandoah National Park which includes the headwaters of the Rappahannock River in its bounds. Hiking to the seventy foot Dark Hollow Falls, the girls learn to appreciate that the mile wide river we know and love in Tappahannock has its humble beginnings in the Shenandoah.
Ninth Grade
The ninth graders explore the river just above the fall line where the river is faster moving, narrower and clearer than the wide, slower, sediment carrying river that forms below the line. The fall line--where water more quickly erodes the softer coastal rock--for the Rappahannock lies near Fredericksburg.
Tenth Grade
Sophomores stick close to home enjoying the Rappahannock as it flows by the St. Margaret’s campus. Cruising on the Captain Thomas to camp out at a faculty member’s home, tenth graders see how the small, swampy creeks all around Tappahannock feed into the Rappahannock and form the complex watershed.
Eleventh Grade
Juniors this year traveled to Chincoteague Island to spend two nights exploring the island, both on foot and by boat. Groups of kayaks led by a guide took a look at the island from the water and even caught a glimpse of the elusive Chiconteague wild ponies!
Twelveth Grade
Seniors spend their time camping in Virginia Beach at the Atlantic Ocean and go on a dolphin cruise. For seniors who have attended St. Margaret’s since 8th grade, they can remember the trickling beginnings of the Rappahannock and see its eventual embodiment as one of the seven seas.
