2-hour Bike Tour (5-miles)
Your guide will join your group on a 5-mile bike ride of Valley Forge Park, providing interpretation at each tour stop including:
Muhlenberg’s Brigade (20-30 minutes): The site where several regiments from predominantly Virginia stayed during the Valley Forge Encampment. Explore several reconstructed soldiers’ huts built to Washington’s specifications and learn about what life was like for members of the Army on the ground level. If time allows, groups may also explore the reconstructed redoubt to visualize the kind of fortifications the Army built during the Encampment. Please note, the area is grassy and walkways are gravel if visitors have limited mobility. The drop-off point to the huts is approximately 40 feet.
National Memorial Arch (10 minutes): Dedicated 1917, the National Memorial Arch was commissioned by Congress and commemorates the hard-won victories off the battlefield during the American Revolution. The Arch symbolizes the importance of overcoming obstacles like disease, supply crises, political discord, public division and the individual struggles everyone touched by war faces, not just during the Valley Forge Encampment but every day for 8 years, in garnering American independence.
Grand Parade Ground (20 minutes): The site of where Baron Friedrich von Steuben began retraining Washington’s troops and formed the foundation of the United States’ Army.
3-hour Bike Tour (7-miles)
The three-hour bike tour covers everything in the 2-hour tour, but also includes a stop at the following:
Washington’s Headquarters (30 minutes): The original building George and Martha Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the rest of Washington’s “military family” stayed during the Valley Forge Winter Encampment. Visitors may walk through Headquarters March through November, off-season tours December-February may explore the grounds surrounding the building but the structure itself will be closed to visitation. The area also includes the Valley Forge train station with a small exhibit covering Washington at Valley Forge, the Carriage House that features artifacts from the forges “Valley Forge” was named for, and a replica of George Washington, the famous sculpture of Washington by the renowned French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon.
