Rock Creek Park Hiking Guide

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How to Absolutely Crush Rock Creek Park From Top to Bottom Bo ttom in One Day

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For her book A Year in Rock Creek Park , Washington writer Melanie Choukas-Bradley Choukas-Br adley spent hundreds of hours walking (and skiing) every nook and cranny of the park. Our challenge for her: Cram its highlights into a single hike on a single day. Here’s the path we followed—all seven miles—in pocket-guide format so you can take it, too.

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From Grubb Road, take this Boundary Trail down to the Valley Trail, our Trail, our pick over the park’s west side because it follows Rock Creek and has way better scenery.

Probably not the creek itself, according to NPS ranger Bill Yeaman. Although Rock Creek has plenty of time to accumulate pollutants on its 33-mile flow from a spring in Laytonsville, that summer stench you’re getting a nasty whiff of isn’t water-based. Instead, it’s gas venting from nearby manholes that gets caught in the park’s valley.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTOGRAPHER NAME

pool—it’s the amphibians’ Look for a vernal pool—it’s happy place. Toads and salamanders mate here, and if it’s spring, you’ll hear the sleighbell tune of the spring peeper frog. See any green or white golf-ball-like specimens near the water’s edge? They’re salamander eggs. V    a l   l  e    y   T    r   a i   l  

Just past the Pine Trail crossing, veer off to the right onto a short, unmarked side trail Ledge,” so to get to “Laurel Ledge,” so named by Choukas-Bradley. You’ll have a sit-and-stayawhile view of the creek, especially if you’re daring enough to climb down the ledge.

Map illustrations  by L-Dopa L-Dopa

Clearly this is no day to go hungry, so your first stop is a Silver Spring institution: Parkway Deli. Because latkes, eggs, and lox—in heaping portions.

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Hear a high-pitched whistle? You may not see the wood thrush, the bird of DC, but its singsong call may be your soundtrack for the whole day.

What’s That Smell?

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By Jennifer Ortiz

oak. The Behold the scarlet oak. The District’s official tree—which grows throughout the park—can extend up to 80 feet. In the fall, it displays its can’t-miss/don’t-miss red leaves.

See those who came before by way of their carvings on the park’s American beech trees—an trees—an illicit but decades-old tradition. B     e    a    c   h    D     r    . 

TRIVIA! The Rolling Meadow Footbridge is bridge  is one of eight built as part of public-works projects during the Depression.