DAY HIKER – Great Falls Park, Va.

EDITORS NOTE: Great Falls, Va., is the subject of a Trail Blazes hiking guide available here from Compass Points Media.

You shouldn’t always walk into the woods intent on a thigh-aching, calf-ripping 10-mile hike to a remote peak or waterfall. Sometimes, it’s refreshing to enjoy a slacker’s pace.

Great Falls Park, Va., near Washington, D.C., provides ample opportunity for a take-it-easy hike that feels more adventurous than your average 2.2-mile walk. This loop hike meanders to the ruins of a village and a 18th-century canal, and it also rambles along the Virginia shore of the Potomac River. Vistas allow you to watch kayakers desperately paddle along the swirling currents and rock climbers scramble up the crumpled cliffs, and of course, you can spy overlook views of Great Falls itself, the famous 76-foot waterfall.

DIRECTIONS: From Interstate 495, take Exit 44 and turn right onto Georgetown Pike (Virginia Route 193). Follow Georgetown Pike for 5.2 miles until the intersection with Old Dominion Drive. Turn right onto Old Dominion Drive and follow it half a mile to the park. Entrance fees are $5 per car or $3 per person if you walk, bike or ride a horse into Great Falls.

HIKE ON: Start from the visitor center and find the Matildaville Trail head in the nearby picnic grove. You’ll be tempted to check out the Great Falls observation platforms in the area, and we don’t blame you. We’ve designed this hike, however, to end at the platforms to give this walk an epic conclusion.

Hike along the Matildaville Trail into the woods, and after just a tenth of a mile, you discover the crumbled ruins of Matildaville. The town became the home of laborers and supervisors constructing the nearby and now-abandoned Patowmack Canal during the late 18th century. Continue deeper into the woods full of deer, foxes and chipmunks for about a mile until you reach an abandoned quarry. Turn left at a trail juncture, walk through the grassy quarry bottom and afterwards look for a seasonal waterfall on your left.

At 1.2 miles, you arrive at Sandy Landing and the juncture of the River Trail. Turn left to follow the turquoise blazes and immediately enter a short rock scramble. Once you’ve reached the top of the ridge, you find your first view of Mather Gorge with hikers looking at you from the opposite shore in Maryland. Keep an eye open for kayakers and rock climbers as you hike upriver along the River Trail and meet several wide open vistas. Be careful around these areas as the fall would be steep, dangerous and likely fatal should you lose your footing. On the other hand, children with their parents make this hike every weekend, so the cliffs should be no deterrent to hiking Great Falls.

Meet the end of the abandoned Patowmack Canal after 1.5 miles and continue on the River Trail as it descends a flight of steps to a platform where you can spy a seasonal waterfall, and hike on until you reach a picnic grove. The observation platforms which gaze out at Great Falls are here. Great Falls tumbles over a series of steps for 76 feet, but it looks more like a raging cauldron of white water and massive stones than a traditional waterfall. End your hike at the Visitor Center.

 

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Tagged as: Mather Gorge, Matildaville, Potomac River