Gold Mine Trail / Great Falls Maryland Hike

It will be quite cold this morning, so dress appropriately.

Arrive: 9:00 am

Hike: 9:05 am (after we have all arrived)

Park at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Falls Road in Potomac, Maryland. The intersection is 1 mile past Old Angler Inn. There should be parking at the intersection. One can also easily park on Fawcett roughly .2 miles from the intersection. If you are going up MacArthur Boulevard take a right on Fawcett before the intersection. Then walk to MacArthur and up to the intersection of Falls and MacArthur.

The hike is roughly a 7-mile beginner to intermediate hike. We will start at the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Falls Road. We then take the gold mine trail loop for about 1.3 miles and take a left at an intersection to get onto the 1 to 1.5 mile Gold Mine Spur, which takes us to the Great Falls visitor center. Note: the Gold Mine loop continues tot the right and the VFW spur goes straight.

We walk through the parking lot (bathrooms are there) to the end and take the 2.8 mile Ford Mine loop and come back 1.0 to 1.5 miles or so. Some of us may also want to visit the Great Falls overlook (a great view of the falls) near the visitor center.

Dogs are welcome.
Here is a detailed description of the gold mine trail, gold mine spur, and the Ford Mine Loop

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maryland/gold-mine-loop-trail

Ford Mine Trail, Maryland - 319 Reviews, Map | AllTrails

After the hike we can go to the Inn at Glen Echo or Old Anglers Inn.