Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the largest park in the Virginia state park system has secrets to tell.

It doesn't shout them with the dramatic flair of a Grayson Highlands State Park or False Cape. Pocahontas State Park — almost 8,000 acres of pristine forest land and two large lakes — whispers clues that only the dedicated park-goer with an inclination to listen will hear and piece together.

It's possible to enjoy much of what Pocahontas offers — an aqua park, mountain bike and equestrian trails, fishing, hunting, boating — without ever hearing the whispers and following the clues. I've biked and hiked there for years without knowing what I was missing.

It only requires a little history lesson and a willingness to abandon the trail at times and traipse off into the woods. Christen Miller, an environmental educator for the park, helped me with both of those on a recent visit to Pocahontas.

The trip was the first in my series on Virginia's state parks. I'd set the goal of going to one every month, staying overnight in each and taking advantage of at least two of the activities the park offers.

In a not uncommon bit of oversight, I found out from Miller that no state park is open for camping until March 1. No matter. I'd just have to cram everything I wanted to do into the daylight hours.

So early one morning in late January, I met Phil Riggan, a friend from work, at Pocahontas to do some mountain biking. Ten years ago, the park had no single track for mountain bikers to enjoy. Now, thanks to a group called Friends of Pocahontas State Park, there are 21 miles of MTB trails. By spring, when the Lakeview Three trail opens, there will be more than 25.

One of the best aspects of the mountain bike trail system is that there are options for every skill level. Novices can cut their teeth on the Green Trail north of Beaver Lake. When they're ready, the obstacle-laden Red Trail will be waiting to test their new skills.

Phil and I choose the intermediate Blue Trail. Blue will get the heart pumping, but it doesn't offer the option of pain and suffering of Red. For the best of both worlds, head over to the Lakeview section of trails.

The Friends of Pocahontas, led by trail boss Eric Cone, started work on the Lakeview trails near Swift Creek Lake three years ago to get more people to enjoy the somewhat overlooked 150-acre lake in the middle of the park. In a couple of months, when Lakeview Three is complete, there'll be 12-13 miles of trails in that section.

Cone described the current work as "another blue level trail .¤.¤. that will have red options. You may have jumps, rock gardens, all sorts of log piles, things like that."

After our ride, Miller gave a tour of the side of Pocahontas most visitors never see. Walking through the park with Miller was like staring at one of those 3D stereograms: If you know how to look just right, an image separates itself from the jumble.

Miller took us first to Dance Forest Trail. Where part of it came to a dead end, she showed us the Dance and Gill family gravesites off in the middle of the forest. Some of the graves had carved tombstones, other were marked by unadorned fieldstones. Trees grew on top of many of the graves.

Miller explained that the Dances were one of many families that farmed the area in the early part of the last century. In fact, when the area first became (then federal) government land in 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps had to reforest 90 percent of it. It became a state park in 1946.

It was hard to imagine, standing in the dense forest, Pocahontas as pasture. Miller pointed out as evidence an oak whose branches stretched more outward than those of most of its upward-reaching neighbors. This was a hint — one of those whispered clues — that the tree was alive before this was a state park, that this place wasn't always the way it is now. As it grew in open space, the tree had the luxury of reaching outward to catch the sun. Survival in a thick forest canopy means growing straight up to catch it.

Later, we visited another grave and homesite. Miller pointed out a variety of vinca growing on the ground, confirmation that humans disturbed the area at some point in the past. Vinca is a non-native species and wouldn't have grown there naturally.

Likewise, the average hiker might never have noticed a row of oaks running at an oblique angle to the path we walked. When Miller identified them, they stood out like the vinca. It was obvious, as she said, that they were meant to line an old road to the homesite.

"This land, after four hundred years, has been used by a lot of different people," she said. "There are about 30 prehistoric sites within park boundaries. They date back to early Archaic, which is around 6,800 BC. I found an arrowhead earlier this year. I was walking down a trail that I take every day, just taking my usual walk, and it was just laying there."

That's Pocahontas in a nutshell: whispered hints of past histories calling out amid the din of modern recreation.

Contact Andy Thompson at (804) 649-6579 or outdoors@timesdispatch.com.