Great Falls Park Va

Warmer Weather Creates the Opportunity for a Romantic Picnic for Two

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Great Falls, VA – A beautiful day, great food, nice bottle of wine and maybe a little romance…how much better can life get? That’s Chef Jacques Haeringer’s philosophy. He also believes eating alfresco lends a festive air to a delightful afternoon repast. Perhaps you and a special someone are heading to a romantic destination and you want to make it memorable. Chef Jacques suggests bringing a picnic basket on the plane with you. Maybe you want to plan a picnic supper at The Hollywood Bowl or Wolftrap Farm Park before an evening concert, or just dining out on the balcony on a warm summer night. Chef Jacques has selected some light and nutritious recipes that are perfect for warm summer days by the pool or in the park. To go with them, he suggests serving a refreshing, non-alcoholic beverage such as a sparkling Apple Cider. His favorites are Le Mousseaux or Alpenglow. For a more festive celebration he recommends a nice sparkling wine or Champagne. Chef Jacques is one of America’s most respected and innovative culinary personalities. Continuing in his father’s footsteps, Jacques loves to create and serve contemporary French fare at his restaurant, L’Auberge Chez François, in Great Falls, Virginia. His menus feature reinterpreted Alsatian and French cuisine for American palates. When he isn’t in the kitchen, he can be found teaching his popular gourmet cooking classes. Jacques is often asked to author magazine articles, cook up recipes at culinary events, and to be a guest on television and radio shows across the country.

DAY HIKER – Great Falls Park, Va. — Compass Points

You shouldn’t always walk into the woods intent on a thigh-aching, calf-ripping 10-mile hike to a remote peak or waterfall. Sometimes, it’s refreshing to enjoy a slacker’s pace.

Great Falls Park , Va., near Washington, D.C., provides ample opportunity for a take-it-easy hike that feels more adventurous than your average 2.2-mile walk. This loop hike meanders to the ruins of a village and a 18th-century canal, and it also rambles along the Virginia shore of the Potomac River. Vistas allow you to watch kayakers desperately paddle along the swirling currents and rock climbers scramble up the crumpled cliffs, and of course, you can spy overlook views of Great Falls itself, the famous 76-foot waterfall.

DIRECTIONS : From Interstate 495, take Exit 44 and turn right onto Georgetown Pike (Virginia Route 193). Follow Georgetown Pike for 5.2 miles until the intersection with Old Dominion Drive. Turn right onto Old Dominion Drive and follow it half a mile to the park. Entrance fees are $5 per car or $3 per person if you walk, bike or ride a horse into Great Falls.

HIKE ON : Start from the visitor center and find the Matildaville Trail head in the nearby picnic grove. You’ll be tempted to check out the Great Falls observation platforms in the area, and we don’t blame you. We’ve designed this hike, however, to end at the platforms to give this walk an epic conclusion.

Hike along the Matildaville Trail into the woods, and after just a tenth of a mile, you discover the crumbled ruins of Matildaville. The town became the home of laborers and supervisors constructing the nearby and now-abandoned Patowmack Canal during the late 18th century. Continue deeper into the woods full of deer, foxes and chipmunks for about a mile until you reach an abandoned quarry. Turn left at a trail juncture, walk through the grassy quarry bottom and afterwards look for a seasonal waterfall on your left.

At 1.2 miles, you arrive at Sandy Landing and the juncture of the River Trail. Turn left to follow the turquoise blazes and immediately enter a short rock scramble. Once you’ve reached the top of the ridge, you find your first view of Mather Gorge with hikers looking at you from the opposite shore in Maryland. Keep an eye open for kayakers and rock climbers as you hike upriver along the River Trail and meet several wide open vistas. Be careful around these areas as the fall would be steep, dangerous and likely fatal should you lose your footing. On the other hand, children with their parents make this hike every weekend, so the cliffs should be no deterrent to hiking Great Falls.

Hiking Virginia, A Guide to Virginia's Greatest Hiking Adventures

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Sixty hikes within sixty miles, Washington, DC

National Park Service (NPS) lands protect both banks and provide riveting views of nature at work. On the Virginia side, Great Falls Park stretches the ...

Great Falls Park, Virginia, Visitor study, Spring 1996

Fodor's Washington, D.C. 2008, With Mount Vernon, Old Town Alexandria & Annapolis

GREAT FALLS PARK, VIRGINIA 23 mi northwest from Georgetown. Part of the National Park System, Great Falls Park is on the Virginia side of the Potomac, ...

Fodor's Virginia & Maryland

Great Falls Park 2(1 mi northwest of Alexandria. ... overnight camping, and alcoholic beverages are not allowed, but you can fish [a Virginia, Maryland, ...