Great Falls

A short ride out of the city to appreciate the majesty of nature

We had house guests from Minnesota last week and I was tickled that they were using my posts to guide their time in DC: visits to the People’s House and the zoo plus lunch at Immigrant Food and the proper burger at Duke’s Counter. They could do the various museums on the Mall by themselves but asked that we accompany them for a walk in nature. After considering Rock Creek Park and Roosevelt Island, we decided to drive out to Great Falls for a view of the Potomac and a stroll along the C&O Canal towpath. There is an overlook on the Virginia side, off the George Washington Parkway, but I try to avoid driving in Virginia lest I end up in the Pentagon parking lot.

At any rate, you wouldn’t know it from looking at the Potomac as it serenely flows past Georgetown, the Lincoln Memorial, and Alexandria, but further upstream, it’s a mass of whitewater with tricky rapids. There are weird currents beneath the water at Great Falls that all too often catch unsuspecting boaters. This 2013 article from The Washington Post includes the grim statistic of seven deaths annually and provides some interesting (though scary) details about these incidents and the rescue efforts.

But you don’t need to put yourself at risk to enjoy the view and sense the power. At the Great Falls Overlook, there is a long walkway that takes you out to viewpoints on Olmsted Island. I didn’t take any video but this photo should give you an idea.

To continue your sojourn, you can either keep walking along the flat (and in places muddy) towpath or take the Billy Goat Trail. The trail is only 1.75 miles long but you’ll have to scramble over lots of rocks as well as navigate a deep V along a cliff (pictured if you follow the link above). It can be quite busy when the weather is nice; if you want a more solitary experience, I’d recommend getting there early in the day. We skipped it last week and instead just enjoyed our walk south along the canal from Lock 20 to around Lock 15. There’s another nice walk a bit further north starting at Pennyfield Lock although you may have to avert your eyes from the Trump National Golf Course on the other side of the river.

There’s free parking at various locks along the canal accessible from River Road and Macarthur Boulevard, but if you want the shortest walk to the overlook, you’ll have to pay $20 to park. Lucky for me, three out of four people in our car had their National Park Service lifetime senior passes with them, so we didn’t pay a cent.