We are planning a trip to Maryland next spring to go to Washington DC as well. We don't like overly commercial, closely packed parks. We love nature around us but don't need a lot of fancy features. Would like to find a park where accessing DC would be possible by means other than using our car/ TRUCK. Thank you in advance
If you want to stay on the Vingina side of the river you can use Bull Run Park in Centerville VA. It is part of the Norther VA Regional Park Authority. I know there is Cherry Hill but that is commercial and right on the beltway so that would not be what you are looking for. Hope it helps. John S. Foretravel
You can have nature.....or you can have a park where you don't have to drive to get to the sights......but you won't find both in an urban area like D.C. Staying at Cherry Hill will allow you to park your rig and vehicle and take the bus to the subway. Extremely convenient but not very natural and woodsy. Bull Run, Pohick Bay in Va. are more natural but you'll have to drive to the subway and compete with commuters for parking spaces at the subway stops. Greenbelt National park is small and heavily wooded but has no hookups. Again you'd have to drive to the sites or the subway. Little Bennet Regional Park in Md. is also natural but I believe it closes in Oct for the season.
Bull Run is a short trip to the metro and you can use HOV which is the Carpool lane if there are two of you. I do agree with the above that you will not find natural and close together. Remember many of the sites are in VA so Bull Run is a good choice. Mt. Vernon is in VA, Arlington National Cemetary is in VA and the mall is an easy trip too. We drove down during rush hour and parked on Penn ave in a garage for 10 dollars all day and were right at the Navy Memorial. Traffic is not that bad if you have 2 people and can use the carpool lanes. I commuted into DC for 14 yrs from the Centerville area. In my Carpool it is 40 mins to downtown DC.
