Scott's Run Nature Preserve
Fairfax County Park Authority Nature Preserve, Acquired In 1970 By Public Subscription; Part Of The Potomac Gorge · McLean, Virginia
Three hundred and thirty-six acres of steep hemlock ravine dropping off Georgetown Pike into the Potomac gorge, twenty minutes from downtown Washington and considerably wilder than that sounds. Scott's Run itself is a small stream that has cut a gorge of its own through the schist, and at the bottom it falls over a ledge directly into the Potomac - a waterfall emptying into a major river, which is an unusual thing to find inside a Washington commuter suburb. The preserve was bought by public subscription in 1970 after residents fought off a housing development, and it has been left deliberately rough: narrow dirt trails, roots, a serious climb back up from the river, and no facilities of any kind. The ridge trail runs along the top of the bluff to an overlook above Stubblefield Falls on the Potomac itself; the lower trails follow the stream down through eastern hemlock, which is rare this far from the mountains. It is beautiful, it is free, and the two small car parks fill by nine on a Saturday.
7400 Georgetown Pike, McLean, Virginia, 22102, United States
Open daily, dawn to dusk, free and ungated. NO FACILITIES AT ALL - no restrooms, no water, no bins. Two small unpaved car parks on Georgetown Pike, both of which fill by about 9 AM on fine weekends; roadside parking on Georgetown Pike is prohibited and vehicles are towed. Trails close or become impassable after heavy rain.
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