Great Falls Park, McLean, Virginia
Hike 32 in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles– Washington DC, Great Falls Park is described as: “Only 17 miles from the White House, the Great Falls area is probably the metro area’s finest close-in natural attraction. The broad and smooth Potomac River suddenly tumbles almost 80 feet in a series of rapids and then squeezes through narrow, mile-long, and sheer-walled Mather Gorge. National Park Service lands protect both banks and provide riveting views of nature at work. On the Virginia side, Great Falls Park stretches the length of the gorge and beyond, and inland to cover 805 acres of rocky shoreline and wooded uplands with hiking trails.”
Entrance to Great Falls Park is $20 unless you have the national parks pass. There are three large parking lots, with the two lots closest to the gate having facilities. The park has a visitor center and loads of spaces for picnics with grills. Of course, the main attraction is the falls, and the park is designed so that the observation decks for the falls are close to parking and accessible for those with special needs.
I did not do much research prior to going here, I only knew I needed to be outdoors and that this was a major landmark here. It is much more civilized than I what I wanted – of course I usually want something more wild. But, I remain impressed with the efforts of the parks here creating inclusive and accessible spaces for all people to enjoy some access to the outdoors.
The trails are pavement or gravel until you get away from the main attraction, and then they are dirt. The trails are well-maintained, but Barbarian Scientist and I did come across an empty stroller in the middle of the a trail and found it…unsettling. We watch and listen to A LOT of murder stories for entertainment, so perhaps that uneasiness comes from those stories?
Great Falls Park is also in Falcon Guides Best Hikes Washington, DC, described like this: “More than 15 miles between Riverbend Park and Theodore Roosevelt Island, the Potomac River descends 130 feet. Technically, the river’s passage spans the ‘fall line,’ a boundary between the Piedmont region of Virginia to tidewaters of the Coastal Plain. Such technicalities are washed away as you witness this transition from Overlooks 1 through 3 at Great Falls Park. The falls are a roaring inferno of white water, an iconic image for most who visit the park.”
The enormous rocks that shoot up through the river and are found along the riverside trails are called schist and metagraywacke. That second one sounds like an insult. The land formations here are ancient and it is humbling to walk here. As we were preparing to move here, a place Barbarian Scientist has never really toured, I was telling Barbarian Scientist how incredible it would feel to him to walk in the same places as the people he has only read about in history. But, nothing compares to standing the side of a gorge, imagining the floods and the ice ages that formed such incredible places like Great Falls Park.
The trails are much less civilized when you get away from the waterfall overlooks, making this a pretty ideal little trail getaway. It is close to home, has the benefits of civility, like filtered water at the visitor center, with more wildness as you cover more miles. Running the trails definitely requires practice with technicality in some spaces, but I am not sure about running much more anyway. Every year since I got sick I have said, “This is the last year I will keep doing this thing.” And I do mean it. until the year is over and I just do not want to give it up. More about that when I make my next entry.
