Hiking DC's Rock Creek Park - Southern Bluffs and Rapids Section

by Brian Schwarz

Rock Creek Park is a swath of preserved parkland located in Northwest Washington, DC. Managed by the National Park Service with hiking trails maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, Rock Creek Park is a haven for urban hikers. Still, despite being well within the urban core of the nation's capital, Rock Creek's trails offer hikers a surprising amount of solitude.

This hike in the rocky southern section of Rock Creek Park begins at historic Pierce Mill. From the Pierce Mill parking area, take the green-blazed Western Ridge Trail north along the Rock Creek flood plain. Carefully cross Broad Branch Road and continue to follow the green blazes up a steep hill to cross Glover Road, soon after which you will reach Equitation Field. 

View from Rapids Bridge of Rock Creek, along the Fall Zone

Keep going on the Western Ridge Trail until you reach the signed Picnic Area 17. Here, cross Glover Road and find unmarked horse trail, identified on the PATC Map N Rock Creek Park map as CT7. Cross trail 7 joins CT6 after you traverse Ross Road at the picturesque Ross Road Bridge. Soon you will reach the flood plain once again. Turn left when you see Rock Creek and walk to Rapids Bridge, where you will cross the bridge to enjoy one of the most scenic views along Rock Creek. This is the Fall Zone, where the Piedmont physiographic province yields to the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

After enjoying views of the boulder-strewn waters, continue across the bridge, and then cross Beach Drive to join the blue-blazed Valley Trail. Turn Right. Stay on the Valley Trail as you pass by Boulder Bridge, where president Theodore Roosevelt once lost a precious gold ring that was never recovered, and climb to the precipice known as Pulpit Rock, a great place to rest and refuel.

Continue on the Valley Trail and soon you will cross Blagden Avenue, then later Park Road and Beach Drive once again. As you once again reach the banks of Rock Creek, turn left, to the end of the Valley Trail at Bluff Bridge.

Cross Bluff Bridge and turn right to join the Western Ridge Trail, at the base of a hill topped by Klingle Mansion, which houses Rock Creek Park Headquarters. Several yards on, you must choose the strenuous or moderate route to continue on the Western Ridge Trail.

The strenuous route is more scenic but requires some light bouldering (grabbing onto boulders to navigate obstacles in the trail). Along the moderate route you will find a spur trail that leads to Klingle Mansion. Just beyond the point where these two routes converge is your starting point at Pierce Mill.

Trailhead: Find the Pierce Mill parking area along Park Road, just west and across Rock Creek from Beach Drive. This hike is also accessible via the Metro Red Line. From Vann Ness - UDC Station walk south on Connecticut Avenue to Tilden Street and walk east. Also, You may take H2, H3, or H4 Metrobus to the corner of Klingle Avenue NW and Park Road NW, then walk north on Park Road to Pierce Mill. Each of these public transit routes add approximately one mile, round trip.
Distance: Approximately 3.5 miles round trip
Elevation Gain/Loss: Approximately 400 feet, spread out between several hills
Map: A free map is available from the National Parks Service here. However, for a more enriching experience hiking Rock Creek Park, I recommend purchasing Map N: Trails in the Rock Creek Park Area, from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, available for purchase here.
Hiking Time: 1.5 to two hours round trip, depending on your personal speed and how often you take breaks to enjoy the views.
Best Times to Hike: This hike can be done year round.
Difficulty: Easy

For more information on this hike or other hikes discussed in the blog HikeyHikey, feel free to leave a comment below. Also, check out my other blogs Man of Merit and MyFitLife2Day and HikingMegalopolis. Or contact me via my splash page at about.me/brian.schwarz

Hiking Philadelphia - West Fairmount Park Great Woods Loop

by Brian Schwarz

Most Philadelphia area hikers know about hiking the Wissahickon Gorge, but few realize some of the best trails lie tucked away between the Schuylkill Expressway, West Philadelphia and City Avenue. That's right, West Fairmount Park is so close to the Center City that no one suspects that it's home to an in-tact contiguous woods, with an easy-to-follow 5-mile hiking loop that leads through the urban wilds and only crosses a busy park road once!

Mountain bikers and competitive cross-country runners already know about sections of these great trails. Still, strikingly few hikers take the time to get to know this truly unparalleled hiking experience. Despite their proximity to the heart of the city, this is not some second-rate hike you do when you can't make it to the Wissahickon, the Reading Prong, Blue Mountain or the Poconos. Hiking the great woods of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park actually feels like entering the lungs of this great city.

Topo map shows terrain, beneath the trees of West Fairmount's Great Woods

Most people who have been to West Fairmount Park are probably most familiar with aspects of the Centennial District, which includes the Philadelphia Zoo, the Horticultural Center with its Japanese Garden, the Mann Center for Performing Arts and the Please Touch Museum in Memorial Hall. Many also know the many picnic areas and the spectacular view to be seen of the Philadelphia skyline from the Belmont Plateau. But fewer know of the woods that lie east of the plateau, on either side of the ridge where you'll find Chamounix Drive and the multi-use Speedway Trail.

The Great Woods of Fairmount Park can be divided into two parts, Belmont Woods and Chamounix Woods. The Belmont Woods is a unique urban-riparian experience.  Bound by Greenland Drive to the north, Chamounix Drive to the west and the sweeping grassy knoll of Belmont Mansion to the south. It is bound by the Schuylkill Expressway, too, and the trails here dip down below the massive interstate highway taking you into quiet wetland zones where creeks trickle down through a mixed-growth forest. Trees that are hundreds of years younger trees, providing a unique forest experience with a high canopy and a dense understory. It's an experience that rivals and even tops many Pennsylvania state forests, most of which are still quite young in comparison.

The Great Woods of Fairmount Park - Belmont and Chamounix

The Satellite image above shows the near contiguous Great Woods of Fairmount Park. Notice where the Strawberry Mansion Bridge enters the picture, crossing the Schuylkill River on the bottom right of the photo. As the road enters the park it is called Greenland Drive until it reaches Chamounix Drive. Belmont Woods are to the left of Greenland and extend all the way to the edge to the grassy area in front of Belmont Mansion. The woods north and west of Chamounix Road stretch as far north as the Schuylkill Expressway - right up to the I-76/Roosevelt Boulevard interchange - then wraps around Chamounix Hill to continue back to Greenland Road.

Here's the best part - the Great Woods of Fairmount Park is home to an extensive network of wilderness trails that nearly ANYONE can do and where EVERYONE is welcome. That's right - you don't have to be a moneybags or have special equipment and such to enjoy these woods! Just strap on a sturdy pair of shoes, carry water and snacks, and carry a pack so you can haul out any trash you make while enjoying the woods. These are the people's woods!

Don't worry that the trails back in these woods are not marked; you can trust all of the trails to lead you eventually to a road. If there is a trail back there that just peters out and doesn't go anywhere - and I haven't found one yet after at least 15 trips to scout trails - then just turn back around and take another route. That's what's so amazing - you're never far from a way out of the woods, yet you could get lost in there for as long as you choose to. These Philadelphia woods are the epitome of the urban wilds.

GPS Map of the Great Woods Hike in West Fairmount Park

The above map shows a recent 5.3-mile hike I took, starting at the Chamounix Mansion Youth Hostel (see the green dot?) and doing a loop of the entire Great Woods Hike. During the hike, I only crossed traffic once - at the intersection of Belmont Mansion and Chamounix Drives, which, as it turns out, is at the three-mile mark, an excellent place to stop and have lunch at the Chamounix Picnic Area.

The road crossings at Ford Road and Greenland Drive each have wooded pedestrian crossings, where if you'd like to exit the woods you may, but you certainly don't have to. Just to give you an idea of how long it would take to do this 5..3-mile loop, I did the entire thing in about three hours, taking several breaks to sit beneath the towering trees and listen to the many birds that call these woods home. Because it is at once so accessible while feeling so remote, you can break up the hike any way you choose and still walk out of the woods feeling refreshed.

So are you ready to explore the Great Woods of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park? Follow this link to sister blog Hiking Megalopolis for a description of an epic loop hike that begins at Historic Strawberry Mansion, just across Strawberry Bridge in East Fairmount Park.

Also, for more information of other opportunities to explore the urban wilds and other hiking areas throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania and beyond, go to Facebook and like the Hiking Megalopolis community page. Free hikes are often listed. And please, TELL YOUR FRIENDS you saw it on Hiking Megalopolis!