Every November, a line of cars turns onto Eisenhower Avenue and idles toward the entrance of Cameron Run Regional Park, headlights catching the string lights strung along the fence before the gate even comes into view. Some of those drivers left from Cameron Station ten minutes earlier. Most of them could have walked.
The paved trail that runs behind Ben Brenman Park, the one dog owners use most mornings and joggers use most evenings, does not stop at the edge of the neighborhood. It keeps going, and it ends at the same gate those cars are lined up for.
The Same Twenty-Six Acres, Twice a Year
Cameron Run Regional Park sits at 4001 Eisenhower Avenue, run by NOVA Parks, the regional authority that also operates Bull Run Regional Park and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. Most of the year, the site is Great Waves Waterpark: a wave pool, four-story slides, a mini golf course, and batting cages that stay open through October even after the water park itself has closed for the season around Labor Day.
Then the fence comes down on the summer identity. NOVA Parks calls the winter version Ice & Lights, The Winter Village at Cameron Run, and it takes over the same footprint with an outdoor ice rink, lit displays, and fire pits where the wave pool used to be. Staff have described the changeover as a three-month installation job, handled by park employees, NOVA Parks volunteers, and outside contractors working through the fall to get the lights and structures in place before opening night.
The pattern holds year over year. Last season, the village opened November 15 and ran daily through the holidays before dropping to weekends-only ice skating through February 28. Tickets went on sale in early October, about five weeks ahead of opening. If this season follows the same rhythm, expect a similar window: a mid-November start, a wind-down to weekend-only skating after the new year, and ticket sales appearing on NOVA Parks' site roughly a month out. The exact 2026 dates were not yet posted at the time of this writing, so it is worth checking NOVA Parks' event page before planning a visit.
Where the Trail Actually Goes
Cameron Station Linear Park is the neighborhood's own paved trail, running alongside Backlick Run between Armistead Boothe Park on the west end and Ben Brenman Park on the east end. It is a short, flat stretch, shaded in patches, lined on one side by townhome yards and on the other by a scattering of trees along the creek.
At Ben Brenman Park, that trail does not dead-end. It connects directly into the Holmes Run Trail, a paved multi-use path that the City of Alexandria lists as running about 3.1 miles between Cameron Run Regional Park, Dora Kelley Nature Park, and Holmes Run Park. Follow it in the other direction from Ben Brenman and it carries walkers and cyclists straight to the same Eisenhower Avenue Trail junction that sits just outside the entrance to Cameron Run Regional Park.
For scale: transit maps show the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station as a 40-minute walk from the park, and Van Dorn Street Metro as a 38-minute walk. The leg from Cameron Station itself, riding the trail through Ben Brenman Park rather than starting from the Metro, covers a fraction of that distance. It is the kind of walk a stroller can handle, not a hike that requires trail shoes.
Inside the Village
Once inside, the winter version of the park trades wristbands for something closer to a walk-through market. General admission does not require a ticket to browse the lights; only the ice rink itself requires a paid, timed slot. Past seasons have included:
- A snack stand called Slice n' Ice, serving hot chocolate, coffee, pizza, hot dogs, and donut holes, with souvenir cups that refill for a dollar
- Fire pits with s'mores kits available for purchase
- Named photo spots, including a walk-through tree, a photo frame, and a giant lit wreath
- Retail items like light-up wands, blinking jewelry, hand warmers, gloves, and a commemorative ornament sold each season
None of it requires advance planning beyond the skating slot. A resident who walks the trail on a Tuesday evening can wander through without having bought anything ahead of time, then decide on the spot whether the fire pit or the rink is worth the extra ticket.
Six Seasons and Counting
Park staff have referred to recent seasons as the sixth year of Ice & Lights, which puts the tradition on track for a seventh winter this year if the pattern continues. It began small enough that most of the region still associates Cameron Run with summer slides rather than string lights, and it has grown into one of three seasonal light attractions NOVA Parks runs each winter, alongside the drive-through Bull Run Festival of Lights in Centreville and the walking-path Winter Walk of Lights at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna.
What makes the Cameron Run version different from its two siblings is not the lights themselves. It is the fact that one entire side of Cameron Station already has a paved route to the gate, built for dog walks and evening runs, that happens to double as the most direct way in during the six or so weeks a year when the site fills with families instead of swimmers.
The park does not know it is two different places depending on the calendar. The geography around it, the trail through Ben Brenman, the connection at the Linear Park, the stretch of Holmes Run Trail that carries it all the way to the Eisenhower Avenue junction, stays exactly the same whether the destination at the end is a wave pool or an ice rink. Only the reason for walking it changes.
If you are curious about other routes tucked into Cameron Station that lead somewhere worth walking to, Paul Gonzalez knows the neighborhood well enough to point them out.
