The Colonial Parkway, built by the National Park Service in the 1930s, is the elegant 23-mile road that links Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown — the three points of Virginia's Historic Triangle. The road is deliberately built to evoke the colonial period: red-and-grey aggregate surface, no commercial signage, no billboards, gentle curves that pass through woods and along tidal rivers.
Driving the whole parkway takes about 45 minutes without stops. Several overlooks along the James and York rivers make natural picnic spots, and bald eagles and ospreys are common. The parkway itself is the journey between the three historic sites — none of the road feels like the modern interstate.