The tallest thing for miles in Virginia Beach isn't a skyscraper — it's a hill made of rubbish. Mount Trashmore Park packs a 60-foot-tall, 800-foot-long grassy mound, two lakes, playgrounds and a famous skate park into 165 acres, all sitting on top of a compacted landfill holding around 640,000 tons of waste. Today it's one of the most visited parks in the city.
The backstory is a clever bit of 1970s problem-solving. In the late 1960s the local landfill was overflowing, and Virginia Beach's high water table meant garbage couldn't be buried deep. Officials instead compacted the waste under layers of soil, finishing in 1973. Residents, riffing on Mount Rushmore, gave the new hill its name. The holes left over from soil digging became the park's two lakes: freshwater Lake Trashmore, stocked with fish, and brackish Lake Windsor. The design was so successful it inspired Haginodai Park in Miyazaki, Japan.
There's more to do here than the name suggests. Climb the painted steps to the summit for views over the flat coastal city, fly a kite down the long slopes (the park office lends out frisbees, balls and nets), or let kids loose at the ADA-compliant Kids Cove Playground, which has three play zones on a rubber surface and even a wheelchair swing. The skate park is a genuine piece of history: in the 1980s it hosted professional competitions that drew big names, including Tony Hawk, and it still has a competition-sized vert ramp. Paved, accessible trails circle Lake Trashmore, where shore fishing is allowed with a licence. Lake Windsor bars fishing but welcomes kayaks. Entry is free, the park opens dawn to dusk, and there are several parking lots. One warning: no sledding. After more than 5,000 people showed up with sleds in 1996, winter tobogganing was banned.
The park sits just off I-264 in the middle of Virginia Beach, about 10 miles from Norfolk International Airport and 11 miles from the Oceanfront beaches. It makes an easy half-day stop within a longer coastal trip. Nearby, First Landing State Park — Virginia's most visited state park, where English colonists landed in 1607 — mixes cypress swamps and maritime forest, while Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge to the south has marsh and dune trails where you might spot deer, bobcats or plenty of waterfowl. Back in town, the three-mile Boardwalk runs past the bronze King Neptune statue into the ViBe Creative District, a mural-filled area the New York Times named a Places to Go for 2026. Tautog's Restaurant is a solid pick for local seafood, and quieter Sandbridge Beach offers an escape from the main crowds.
Mount Trashmore is worth a visit precisely because it doesn't feel like what it is — a bold early example of turning waste into public space. It suits families, skaters, anglers and anyone squeezing a green escape between airport and beach.
