Great Falls Virgina

Great Falls

It seemed entirely appropriate that, as we were staying in the Great Falls area, we should take a trip out to see the waterfalls and rapids that gave the area its name.

Phil, Nicky, Lesley and me with Great Falls as the backdrop. Jack’s behind the camera

These are really quite close to Phil and Lelsey’s house but because we visited on the final day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the Great Falls park was extremely busy and we hit a huge queue ‘near’ the entrance (signs warned of a 45 minute wait to actually get to the park entrance). Not to be deterred, we turned around and Phil and Lesley took us on a major detour to the other side of the park (no queues to get in but not a lot of space left in the carpark) from where we set off on a half hour walk to get to the falls themselves.

Flood High Water Marks

The falls aren’t high but the sheer volume of water piling down the river was very impressive. Perhaps more so was that with really heavy rain storms the water level can rise over 30ft higher! Just beside the main viewing point we looked at a post showing the flood high water marks, the highest of which was well above head height (1936) and the banks at that point were least 25ft above the river. And we’d been having a lot of rain!

Beside the river at this point are the very faint remains of a canal which had been dug to allow river traffic to bypass the falls through a series of locks. This canal had actually been a business venture set up by George Washington. Given the regular flooding it’s not really surprising that there isn’t much left of the canal construction but we did see the odd stretch of wall and the line of the canal as a shallow dip in the ground.

So after having streatched our legs it was time to make our way back to the car and head home for another of Phil’s amazing gourmet feasts.

Great Falls, VA, USA