"That is an incredible concentration of people who are just desperate for natural spaces, and here we have it."
Justin Wilson, executive director of NOVA Parks and a former Alexandria mayor, told ALXnow this on September 21. He was talking about the neighborhoods around Winkler Botanical Preserve, near Southern Towers and the West End's other large residential complexes. Four days earlier, the NOVA Parks board had adopted a capital budget that funds a new way into the preserve.
That makes this fall a season with a clock on it. Three things are shifting at the same time. The preserve's evening hours stop after October. Work on its entrance could start as soon as late this year. The Holmes Run Trail's last closed section at Dora Kelley Park is due to be substantially finished in the same months. If Winkler is your after-work walk, the version you know now has an end date.
Twelve evenings left this year
Winkler is at 5400 Roanoke Avenue. Its schedule changes with the season, and the change comes November 1.
| Season | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| January – March | Daily | 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
| April – October | Mon., Tue., Wed., Fri., Sun. | 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
| April – October | Thursday and Saturday | 8:30 a.m. – 7 p.m. |
| November – December | Daily | 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
The preserve also closes for Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, and for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Counting from today, Wednesday, September 23, there are twelve late days left in 2026. The Thursdays are September 24 and October 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. The Saturdays are September 26 and October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. Halloween is the last evening you can walk here until the April schedule comes back.
The late days are new. In late 2023, ALXnow described the preserve as open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. In May 2026, FFXnow reported that the NOVA Parks operating budget paid for more staff at Winkler as the preserve expanded its hours. NOVA Parks hasn't published the exact date the Thursday and Saturday evenings began. The schedule above is simply what the park system lists today.
What an evening visit looks like
NOVA Parks describes several trails, streams, a lake and a waterfall, surrounded by woods and native plants. The preserve dates to 1979. Catherine Winkler Herman, her daughter Tori Thomas and the Winkler Foundation created it to protect the land while Mark Center was being developed around it. The private lodge on the property is still called Catherine's Lodge. NOVA Parks took over the preserve from the Winkler Organization in 2022, along with endowments for capital needs and education programs.
The rules make it a walking preserve, not a picnic park. The official "Know Before You Go" list covers:
- Dogs: allowed on a leash at all times. Pick up and remove all pet waste.
- Wheels and games: no bikes, scooters, skates, skateboards, outdoor toys or balls.
- Food: no food or drink except bottled water, and no picnic areas.
- Water: no fishing or swimming, no walking across the dams and no crossing the streams or lake.
- Facilities: no public restrooms.
- Parking: "very limited." You may use unmarked, unreserved spaces in the surrounding neighborhood.
Alexandria City Public Schools lists general admission as free. Portrait sessions are different. If the main reason for your visit is photographing people, NOVA Parks requires a two-hour reservation for $50. Keep that in mind if you're booking family photos with the waterfall in the background this fall.
The parking line is the one that shapes an evening visit. A small lot and a neighborhood street are all the access the preserve has today, and that's what the new budget is meant to fix.
The entrance is funded, and the timeline is short
ALXnow reported that the FY2027–2031 capital budget sets aside $1 million for entrance improvements at Winkler. Wilson said the money would pay for a new bus loop and more parking, drawing on the Winkler endowment and NOVA Parks' own funds. The line items in the adopted budget break down a little differently. They show $800,000 for road and parking improvements and $100,000 for preserve improvements in FY2027, then another $150,000 for road and parking in FY2030.
School groups are the reason for the bus loop. "We bring a lot of school groups there, and there's a real challenge to bring buses in," Wilson told ALXnow. Winkler is a regular field-trip stop, and NOVA Parks works with school systems to bring in students, especially from Title I schools.
NOVA Parks is working with the City's planning and zoning staff and expects final approvals within a few months. Construction could start as soon as late 2026 or early 2027. Wilson also said the park system is talking with the City about possible new entrances. The goal is to make the preserve easier to reach while managing it carefully so it doesn't get overrun. The idea has been around for a while. City planning materials from a September 2024 meeting include a neighborhood pedestrian and bike network map marked "Possible Winkler Botanical Preserve Pedestrian Access."
Put those together and the timing is clear. The last evening of this year's late schedule falls just before the earliest possible start of entrance work. The next time Thursday and Saturday evenings return in April, getting in may look different.
Saturday, October 17 fills up on both sides of Beauregard
One Saturday this fall has the most going on in the West End's nature spaces.
- Morning at Winkler. NOVA Parks has an Emergency Preparedness merit-badge class at the preserve. Registration is full, the waitlist is open, and the fee is $36. The event page says 10 a.m. to noon, but the registration listing says 9 a.m., so confirm with NOVA Parks before you go.
- Morning at Dora Kelley. The City's free Macroinvertebrate Monitoring session runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon. It meets at the Jerome "Buddie" Ford Nature Center, 5750 Sanger Avenue, where volunteers sample aquatic insects and other stream life. Space is limited and registration is required.
- Evening at Winkler. It's a Saturday in October, so the trails stay open until 7 p.m.
After that, the preserve's calendar gets quiet until "Owls!" on Saturday, November 21, from 2 to 3 p.m. It's a $10 program for families with children 7 and older, and anyone under 18 needs an adult with them. Registration opens November 19 at 10 a.m., which leaves two days before the program. If you'd rather help out than attend, NOVA Parks takes ongoing volunteers age 13 and up. Roles include monthly schedules, weekend programs, weekday field trips and one-time scouting service projects.
The Buddie Ford Nature Center is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. It sits next to Dora Kelley Nature Park, which the City describes as 50 acres with a one-mile trail and an ADA-accessible paved path.
Holmes Run's last gap is at Dora Kelley
Dora Kelley Park is also where the West End's longest trail project is wrapping up. Flooding in 2018 closed the Holmes Run Trail section inside the park that connects to North Morgan Street. In 2019, record flooding badly damaged that section and three others, including two bridges.
Most of those repairs are done. The 4600 Duke Street bridge crossing was finished in August 2023. On September 12, 2025, the City opened the bridge at the North Morgan Street cul-de-sac and the trail section at North Ripley Street. With those two open, there's a continuous off-street route from Beauregard Street to Eisenhower Avenue.
The Dora Kelley section, which the City calls Site 1, is still closed. It's the one the City expects to be substantially complete in fall 2026. The project replaces the old fair-weather crossing, which had to be passable only in good weather, with a raised bridge. When the closure was announced in 2025, the City posted a detour along North Beauregard Street and Sanger Avenue. The City's current alert says to expect periodic construction near Dora Kelley Nature Park and Chambliss Street through fall and winter 2026. Sections may close temporarily for heavy equipment, and flaggers and detour signs may be out. Park Services Deputy Director Jack Browand keeps an email list for project updates.
So by the time Winkler switches to its winter hours, the Holmes Run Trail may be whole again for the first time since 2018. Winkler's own entrance work would then be next in line.
The details to plan around: the Thursday and Saturday evenings at 5400 Roanoke Avenue end with Halloween, parking will stay tight until the bus loop and new spaces are built, and the raised bridge at Dora Kelley is the last Holmes Run piece still under construction.
Part of what a West End home is worth comes from knowing which trails are about to reconnect and which entrances are about to change. That kind of block-level detail shapes how buyers see an address. If you'd like to know how it shows up in your home's value, Kristen Jones Real Estate can walk you through it. Request your complimentary home valuation.
