Fifteen days after our amazing cliff-edge sunset hike and camp, I was on the hunt for a stunning waterfall — Hiking is addicting like this — and what better place to go than Great Falls Park …
Admittedly, this Virginia national park gets little talk if you are not from the area and happen to know about it — In this regard, it is like its Virginia sibling, Shenandoah National Park. However, Great Falls Park is a reprieve in an area known for people, skyscrapers, and what-feels-like a bustling city.
That is because this national park sits in the heart of Fairfax County, Virginia’s highest populated county with over one million residents.
This also means Great Falls Park is a mere 45 minutes from our country’s capitol of Washington, D. C. — which, for reference, is one of the top most-populated cities in America.
Picturing what is around Great Falls Park though allows a better appreciation of the natural beauty inside the park. Known for its expansive views of the Potomac River, the park has a gorge, overlooks, river with waterfalls, forest, swamp, and several rare plants. I find two facts interesting about the park: First, it has not been a national park long — In fact, Great Falls is more often than not left off national park lists. The truth is it got this status in 1966 as part of a Congressional provision, which stated the land containing the historic Patowmack Canal and natural scenery be protected and preserved as part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The second is that this national park is relatively small in comparison to others: It is only 800 acres. I’ve been researching for a good bit of time to make this statement too: Gateway Arch National Park takes first place for the least amount of acres at 91, bringing Great Falls National Park in second place. (Great Falls more than claims this spot too — Third place goes to the National Park of American Samoa has 4,000 acres.)
Despite all of these unique features and being only a few hours from us too, Andy and I had yet to visit this national park so we set out to change that …
We opted for the blue-blaze River Trail:
- Three miles
- 479-foot elevation gain
- Level Two out of Five difficulty
The River trail is a dirt path that lead to scenic overlooks with the best views of the Potomac River as it continues to carve its way through the Mather Gorge …
This first overlook was perched above the 60-foot waterfall, which was breathtaking.
A neat note on the Mather Gorge: It is technically a gorge within a gorge — It is a narrow one-mile long gorge surrounded by rocky cliffs. The gorge was named in memory of Stephen T. Mather who was a conservationist and a founder of the National Parks Service and, therefore, national parks.
From our spot, we could see rafters travel past and continue down with the rapids …
Further down the trail, we had our next overlook, which was equally impressive both due to the waterfall and the water color changing from a light teal to a darker blue …
I have to say, Andy and I have lived next to the James River since knowing each other so exceptional river views are our normal — Being near a river feels like home. Still, the Potomac had beautiful differences from the James, making this river feel impressive and our outing, unique and special.
Plus, our trail could go from waterfalls over river rocks to fast-moving rapids in deep water, which is where our view took us next a few yards down …
Here, we watched people as they walked carefully over rocks by the river’s edge and birds as they soared high in the sky.
This part of the trail not only displayed the Mather Gorge best but also showed how low the river was as the light tan and dark grey water levels were more visible on the bedrock …
While the river was low when Andy and I went, this is not always the case. According to this sign, after significant storms, snow melts, and heavy rains upstream, the watershed is constricted and funneled as it passes through the gorge, making the gorge rapidly fill with waters that engulf the surrounding landscape. In fact, the river has been known to rise so high that it flows over this cliff edge!
Because of these floods, the plants are a vital concern to conservationists …
Looking first at Great Falls Park’s swamp (called the Northern Piedmont/Lower New England Basic Seepage Swamp), there are twenty-seven rare, threatened, or endangered Virginia and regional plants.
Beyond this, there are two rare forest communities (or groupings of plants) — The Riverside Bedrock Terrace Pine Woodland. This grouping consists of certain trees (specific pine, cedar, oak) and shrubs only known in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. The other is Potomac River Bedrock Terrace Oak–Hickory Forest. This grouping consists of certain trees (oak, fringetree, hop tress), shrubs, grasses, and sedges that are endemic, meaning cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
(PS–What the heck is a ‘sedge’? Let me tell you because I’m completely geeking out on flora right now. Sedges are similar to grasses, except they have edges whereas rushes [again, similar to grasses] are round and grasses have nodes while being hollow from the top to the ground. All my life I’ve misidentified sedges and rushes as grasses! The magic of the internet, y’all!)
As Andy and I made our way closer to the rocky bank, the river opened up at our next view …
The cliff edges are anywhere from 25 to 75-feet high, and they are all very close to the trail, which is why we found it more than easy to weave on and off the blue blaze; and while the river undoubtably captures the majority of attention, the River Trail was gorgeous too. We went in July when the wildflowers were in full bloom …
Our trail was about to come to an end though before Andy and I planned to turn back so our next river perch was the last before reaching the Potomac River’s edge …
Interestingly enough, across the water is a different state and a different national park: It is Maryland’s Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park. In all, there are 15-miles worth of trails in both parks, and some of them loop from one to the other by going over the river.
All in all, this hike gave me exactly what I needed — a quick jaunt from home with rewarding river views. I left impressed that a city could offer such a reprieve, and our plans to visit again to walk a different trail are in the future …
