Shall we take a few turns in the way-back machine?  Somehow I’ve gotten terribly behind in sharing monthly trail reports – whoops!  It’s time to catch up, so I’m wrapping up in a sweater, grabbing a cup of hot tea and looking back at a few pictures I snapped on a hot day in early September at Great Falls.

Great Falls is one of our go-to haunts in northern Virginia – I don’t need to tell you that we love it there, because I’ve written about it so many times you surely know all about it.  We also love taking out-of-town visitors and newcomers to the area to see the park, because it’s one of the great beauty spots of northern Virginia.  So when a new friend, who just moved to NoVA from San Francisco, asked for trail recommendations for her family of avid hikers, Great Falls was near the top of my list.  We decided to get our families together for a hike on Labor Day Monday – at first, we considered a drive out to Shenandoah National Park, but our friends had visitors in town and couldn’t get out until late morning.  So we decided to stay closer to home, and Great Falls was the obvious choice.

The waterfall was sparkling in the sunshine!  Our friends’ jaws dropped and they immediately remarked on the beauty of the river, the gorge, and the surrounding scenery.

We decided to walk upriver toward Riverbend Park, rather than downriver along the edge of the gorge, because we had three small hikers on foot (our friends also have a one-year-old, but she was riding along in an Ergo on her mom) and the downriver walk includes some ledges.  So upriver we went, and the decision paid off immediately when we saw a Great Blue Heron soaking up the sun on a rock.

We didn’t actually get very far, but that was okay.  The kids found a bubbling brook and the shoes came off immediately.  They had fun wading, splashing, and moving rocks from one side of the stream to another (kids are so weird).

After the hike, we stopped by the visitors’ center and picked up Junior Ranger booklets for the older three, then filled them out together at one of the picnic tables.  (Nugget’s was a lot of scribbles, but the rangers let him through anyway – ha!)  They turned in their booklets and took the Junior Ranger oath.

Two proud Great Falls Junior Rangers!

What’s your go-to local hike to show off your area to visitors and new residents?