Great Falls, VA

This would be my last day in the Washington, D.C. area. I spent time cleaning out the car and packing up everything. The longer you are at a site, the more things get disorganized and misplaced. I made blueberry pancakes and a strong cup of coffe.

Great Falls was a 15 minute drive from the campground. The speed limit on the access road to the park was 25 mph and I was doing 30 mph. The guy behind me was in a rush and passed me in a no passing zone. We got to the gate, and there was a $20 entrance fee per car. There were 15 cars in front of me. It took about 20 minutes to get to the gate. I showed the ranger my “Natonal Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass” and asked her if it would do me any good. She said, “Yes, that is very helpful. There’s no charge with that pass.”

The parking lot is right beside the trail to the falls. I walked 10 minutes to the visitors center which was closed, but the restrooms were open. There’s a trail from the visitors center to the falls overlook.

While I was standing photographing the falls, a U.S. Park Police Helicopter flew over the falls. I quickly switched to my 200mm lens thinking it would probably come back down the river once it turns around. It actually flew right at me and then turned and went down towards the river. Apparently, people don’t heed the warnings about swimming in the river and they patrol to make sure people aren’t getting into trouble. Every year, many people die because of falling on the rocks or being pulled under by the currents.

Flooding

It’s truely amazing looking down at the falls and thinking that the water at times floods the cliffs above where I was standing. Up river, it is very wide, and at the falls the river narrows. The constriction at the falls and down river, causes that area to fill with water and flood the banks a hundred feet or more above.

I continued to walk down stream for about a mile on the blue blaze trail. I took a side trail to some rocks overlooking the river. I had to make sure I didn’t get too close to the edge. Some kids were playing behind me and I was happy to hear the parents tell the kids to stay off the rocks. I thought, I wasn’t being a very good example.

I met Jesus and Betsy, the parents of the kids that were behind me. I heard them speaking Spanish to the kids. They also spoke English. I said to them that it was good that they speak to them in Spanish. They were from Puerto Rico and had family living in the Washington, D.C. area. The kids will eventually also be learning English.

I hiked back to my car and changed into my riding gear and got on my mountain bike. There was a bike path that went upstream to a dam and beyond. I was able to get photos of the dam without getting wet.

I tried to continue my ride upstream, but it was so rocky and steep that it was difficult to continue on. I decided to go back to the car and avoid potentially getting hurt.

I booked a campsite at the Richmond North / Kings Dominion KOA site. The hour and a half trip took close to four hours. I stopped for some really bad Chinese food and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper the entire way. I got to the campsite around 7:00 pm, setup the tent and went to sleep. I was exhausted.