Goshen Pass Natural Area Preserve is a 936-acre protected landscape in Rockbridge County, Virginia, centered on the Maury River gorge and recognized as Virginia’s oldest state-managed natural area. The state acquired the land in 1954 to protect the gorge’s river views, and it was formally dedicated as a Natural Area Preserve in 2001. Owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, it contains chestnut oak stands, pine-oak-heath woodland, and rocky scrub communities shaped by steep terrain. The preserve also shelters regionally rare plants, including freshwater cordgrass, and provides habitat for the locally rare Appalachian jewelwing, uniting scenic protection, native ecosystems, and uncommon species in one early conservation site.