Most of the Chesapeake’s tributaries were built along; this one largely was not, so its tidal corridor is still forest and freshwater marsh where the salt from the James meets the fresh from inland. Bald cypress stand straight out of dark water and great blue herons work the shallows. Put in from the park’s kayak launch, paddle into a backwater creek, and the loudest things are woodpeckers, frogs and turtles going off the logs.