The Gear House

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This past Sunday I got a chance to head down to Great Falls, MD to do some hiking around, take some pictures, and capture some video. This was my first time entering the Maryland area of the park - there is also a Virginia side to Great Falls as the Potomac River runs right through the middle of the area and is the border line for MD and VA.

Anyway, it was an extremely hot day out and I underestimated what I was getting into. Since I had not been hiking in the Maryland side of the park before, I just assumed that it was pretty similar to the Virginia side - fairly easy hiking trails and old canal tow paths. Although this assumption was true, there are also some different more strenuous sections of trail, such as the Billy Goat Trail which I hiked on Sunday. Speaking of which, I actually decided to get off the trail early because I literally ran out of water (in about an hour I drank a full 70 oz Camelbak). Luckily, I came across an “emergency exit” from the Billy Goat Trail that ran right to the main tow path trail. Although it was marked as for emergency exits only, there were a fair amount of people using it as a connector (it was about the half way point of the Billy Goat trail).

The trail is extremely nice, but also features a lot of boulder fields and rock scrambels that you will need to ascend. The trail takes you right along the edge of the Potomac in most places and you can enjoy the amazing views of the river as well as the rock formations and rock face on the Virginia side. Another neat thing about this park is that since Great Falls is on both sides of the river, while hiking, if you look out across the river, you will most likley see other people hiking as well. On top of the hiking the other side, Great Falls, VA offers some great climbing routes for beginners to experts. Another big attraction to the park is the kayaking in the area - kayakers were everywhere I looked along the river having an awesome time in the water and hitting some big holes and waterfalls. There was even some sort of kayaking competition going on, which I tried to show you a bit within the video.

Above is a video I put together as well as some pictures from the day. Hope you enjoy! It was a great place for a day hike and I strongly recommend you checking it out!