Riverbend Park
Fairfax County Park Authority Regional Park; Adjoins Great Falls Park And Carries The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail · Great Falls, Virginia
Four hundred acres of Potomac floodplain and river bluff immediately upstream of Great Falls, and the quiet answer to it. Where Great Falls Park is about rock and noise, Riverbend is about slow water: the river here is wide, shallow and braided around islands, and the trail runs beside it through bottomland forest for two miles until it crosses into the national park at the top of the gorge, which means you can walk from one to the other and most visitors to either have no idea. In April the floodplain does something worth planning a year around - Virginia bluebells come up in sheets across acres of it, one of the largest displays in the region, and for about three weeks the ground between the trees is solid blue. The rest of the year it is a Fairfax County park doing county park things well: a visitor centre and nature centre above the water, canoe and kayak rental, a boat ramp onto the calm stretch, a picnic area, and a heron rookery on the islands that you can watch from the bank without disturbing.
8700 Potomac Hills Street, Great Falls, Virginia, 22066, United States
Park and trails open daily, generally dawn to dusk, free to enter and free to park. Visitor and nature centre keep shorter hours, are reduced in winter and close on some weekdays - check before travelling. Boat rental is seasonal and suspended in high or low water. Floodplain trails close after heavy rain. Bluebells peak for roughly three weeks in April.