Great Falls

 I was looking up National Parks in Virginia when I found Great Falls.  Located about 25 miles from our house we decided one Saturday to go check it out.  I had read it could get pretty busy so we left in the early morning and arrived just as the line was starting to form to enter the park.  They have a little visitor center which explains more about the park.  

  Basically like the name implies it is a large waterfall.  Different though from the waterfalls I am used to seeing.  It does drop 70 ft in a matter of seconds but as you can see from the pictures instead of straight down it is more of a gradual drop.  Still very impressive though.  Very powerful water and some crazy people even kayak at the bottom of it. 

This is the Potomac river and Great Falls is the place where it crosses a line where the ground is softer as it gets closer to the Ocean.  

Liam liked climbing on all the rocks around it.  There were a lot of signs about being careful though.  Apparently people thought it was a great place to swim and there have been a lot of drownings.  

I like seeing the mist as the water pours over the rock and splashes into the rocks below.








Great Falls was a huge attraction in the early 20th century and had a trolley and carousel along with a town and workers around the river.  Now it is a lot of picnic area and next time we plan on being more prepared with a picnic in hand.  On the way out of the park there were approx. 100 cars lined up to get into the park though.  It's a good thing we went early!