Where To Find An Incredible Waterfall Less Than A 30 Minute Drive From D.C.

Looking for something fun to do with your friends or family in the D.C. area that doesn’t involve monuments or museums? Well, then Great Falls Park is the perfect option for you, it’s less than 30 minutes from D.C. and it is one of the closest trails and places to swim to D.C. that is completely clean and surrounded by nature. The fresh air alone makes the trip worth it, but the trails and paths aren’t very difficult so don’t feel like you need to be an extreme athlete to come here and have a good time!

How to get to the closest waterfalls to D.C.?

Great Falls Park is only 15 miles away from D.C. and is home to a series of rapids and waterfalls that range from 20 to 76 feet in height! The way to get there is simple, but once you arrive you can enter the park for a fee that is valid for three days ($20 per car and $15 per person on foot or bicycle). If you do not have a car and need to use public transit to get there you should know that there is not a particularly direct route from D.C. to get to the park entrance, the closest metro stations will be Spring Hill and Greensboro, both of which are on the Silver Line and around five miles from the park. From these metro stations, the Great Falls Park website encourages you to take a cab to the entrance lot of the park rather than walking the five-mile distance, this is because of the entrance’s remote location and the fact that the roads alongside it are not very amenable to pedestrians.

Once you’re at the park, to get a close look at the waterfalls you’ll want to follow path signs for The River Trail, which is about a 1.5-mile trek (3 miles total) that takes visitors alongside the cliff tops that border the edge of the Potomac River. The River Trail is considered a moderate to hard trek, so while it shouldn’t be accessible to most it does require some preparation in advance; make sure you wear proper footwear, have adequate water, and make sure you are dressed for the weather. That being said, it’s also worth clarifying that unfortunately, due to the terrain, this trail is inaccessible for bikes, strollers, wheelchairs, or even horses (just in case you were wondering) because there are a few areas that may require you to scramble over a few rocks. The trail will start around the picnic area close to the visitor center, and ends around what the park refers to as “Cow Hoof Rock”.

It’s also worth noting that even though this is a beautiful hike that should be very enjoyable to visitors, nature tends to be unforgiving to those who are distracted or unfocused on the path in front of them, so while the hike can be beautiful if you opt to stop for photos, please make sure you do so in a place that is safe for you, your friends, and also others on the path that may be trying to go around you.

What you need to know about Great Falls Park

As you can imagine, being one of the most beautiful natural parks in the country and being in such close proximity to D.C., it gets quite busy on the weekends, particularly during nicer weather. The park opens at 7:00 am daily, so it’s recommended that those who want to enjoy the park and views without the crowds should show up earlier (ie before 10 am), this will not only let you enjoy the trails with a little more tranquility, but it will also ensure you a faster entrance to the park as you won’t have to wait for a parking spot to open up. Those that do arrive later in the day, like 11 am or later, particularly on the weekends, should expect to wait between 30 minutes to an hour in order to get entrance into the park. This process can be slightly expedited by having your payment method ready (cash is preferred but not required), but you can also buy your entrance ticket online in advance, which may not move you ahead in line but will make the payment process much easier as you enter the park.

Can you bring pets to Great Falls Park?

Yes, you can bring your furry friends with you to Great Falls Park, but they must remain on a leash the entire time they are inside the park. The park is pet friendly, but to ensure that the natural habitat of the animals of the park remains undisturbed and that other visitors of the park aren’t having their experience impacted by free-roaming pets, the park requests that owners keep their pets on a short leash from when they enter the park until they leave. You should also know that pets are not permitted to go in the water as well, so if keeping your fuzzy friend from jumping in is going to be a challenge, it may be worth limiting them to a trail that isn’t directly alongside the water.

Free entrance days at Great Falls Park

Location: Great Falls Park, 9200 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, VA 22102