Description of The Watercourse
The Rappahannock River rises at Chester Gap, a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains a few miles southeast of Front Royal, Virginia, near the single point where Warren, Fauquier, and Rappahannock counties come together. It flows southeastward, past Remington, Kelly's Ford, and Richardsville, before it is joined by the Rapidan River, its largest tributary, from the right. Then the Rappahannock passes through the city of Fredericksburg. Southeast of Fredericksburg, it begins to slow and widen into a brackish tidal estuary approximately 50 miles (80 km) long. It passes two small, but historic, river towns, Port Royal and Port Conway, which sit opposite each other, the former on the south bank, the latter on the north. Then it flows past Tappahannock on its southern bank, a point where the river is well over a mile wide. The last settlements of any size before reaching the Chesapeake Bay are Irvington, Urbanna, Stingray Point, and White Stone Beach.
The broad river enters Chesapeake Bay approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of the mouth of the Potomac and approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of the state capital, Richmond. At the point where the river enters the bay, between Windmill Point, on the north, and Stingray Point, on the south, it is more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. This area, the estuary south of the Northern Neck peninsula, is a productive oyster and crab fishery.
Above Fredericksburg, the Rappahannock provides fine opportunities for recreational canoeing and kayaking. Most of the rapids are Class I and Class II in difficulty, but, near Remington, there are some rapids that are considered to be Class III.
The rivers watershed is protected in various places by parcels of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
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