- Civil War Series - One of 68 forts protecting Washington, DC during the Civil War, Fort Foote was built by Union forces to defend the nation’s capital from a potential Confederate naval attack on the Potomac River. Completed in 1863, this battery atop Rozier’s Bluff on the Maryland shore boasted eight 200-pound Parrott rifles …
- Civil War Series - Northern Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery occupies a prized piece of real estate, just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. At 624 acres, the sloping hillsides contain the graves of thousands of American military veterans, dating back to the Civil War, as well as a handful of notable civilians, including …
Continue reading Arlington House & Arlington National Cemetery, VA
Like most marshy environments, the defining feature of the Mason Neck peninsula is, of course, the water that surrounds it. Despite being well upstream of the ocean, the Potomac River at Mason Neck still ebbs and flows with the Atlantic tides, and the inlets of Belmont Bay and Kane’s Creek give life to freshwater wetlands …
Most DC residents who know the Billy Goat Trail brag of completing the iconic Section A—a rugged and challenging hike in Maryland’s Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. While Section A’s Potomac vistas and rocky traverses make it one of the area’s most popular hikes, there are in fact two other sections of the …
Continue reading Billy Goat Trail – Section B (Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, MD)
Perched at the southern tip of South Mountain, more than 500 feet above the Potomac River, Weverton Cliffs in central Maryland is easily one of the state’s most scintillating viewpoints. It is also relatively easily accessible—less than a mile’s hike up the famed Appalachian Trail from the small community of Weverton, which in turn is …
Continue reading Appalachian Trail to Weverton Cliffs (South Mountain State Park, MD)
- Civil War Series - In September 1862, Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson used Loudoun Heights as a staging ground for the bombardment of the picturesque—but also strategic—town of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Today, remnants of the Civil War have mostly disappeared from the ridgetop, but spectacular views of Harper’s Ferry and the confluence of the …
Continue reading Loudoun Heights Trail (Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, WV)
- Revolutionary War Series - George Washington—Revolutionary War hero, the first US president, and…farmer and gardener? Mount Vernon celebrates the life of America’s most well-renowned founding father, with a focus on his dealings at home: in the privacy of his majestic estate on the banks of the Potomac River, where he raised livestock and grew …
Continue reading George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, VA)
It must have come as a surprise to early pioneers in the area northwest of present-day Washington, DC—where the Potomac River is mostly calm, wide, and still—to find a sudden, powerful plunge impassable by boat. Owing to a geomorphologic break extending 900 miles along the Eastern Seaboard, Great Falls tumbles 76 feet in less than …
Continue reading Great Falls Overlooks (Great Falls Park, VA)
Terminating at a multi-tiered waterfall, the Gulf Branch Trail follows one of northern Virginia’s several lush stream valleys from Glebe Road Park in Arlington to the Potomac River. The Gulf Branch Nature Center, situated roughly halfway through the hike, offers daily programs and surprisingly extensive exhibits on the local ecology and history. The below account …
This 4.6-mile ramble from Turkey Run Park to Scott’s Run Nature Preserve in McLean, Virginia constitutes the third section of the Potomac Heritage Trail heading westward from Rosslyn in Arlington. (Note: Descriptions of the two preceding sections—Roosevelt Island to Fort Marcy and Fort Marcy to Turkey Run Park—can be found here and here, respectively.) Despite …
Live and Let Hike 