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River Access: Great Falls/Canal Planning Effort Moves Ahead

By David (Cotton) Cottingham

CCA's River Access Committee members have been working with colleagues at the C&O Canal National Historical Park to improve paddler access at key points along the Potomac River. C&O NHP, a unit within the National Park Service, controls access to the Potomac between Georgetown and Cumberland. CCA has long encouraged the park leadership to be more aware of and responsive to the interests of whitewater paddlers. John Snitzer, Alf Cooley, and others emphasized that in 2020 when we focused on:

Adequate, safe parking at intervals along the canal and river,
Unencumbered trails between parking lots and the river' s edge, and
Safe access across the last 10 feet to the Potomac

In the spring of 2025, NPS circulated a draft Great Falls Development Concept Plan (GFDCP) for the C&O Canal NHP. NPS posted the final GFDCP in January 2026. The planning team consisted of representatives from NPS's National Capital Region and from NHP, plus architectural, engineering, compliance, and traffic engineering consultants.

The GFDCP defines the planning area as the canal, towpath, parking lots, and trails between Swains Lock and Angler's Inn parking lots. The plan recognizes that high levels of recreation are creating a myriad of problems due primarily to overuse. Think about parking lots being jammed at Angler's and Great Falls. Think about backups at tight spots and trail deterioration along the Billy Goat Trail. The plan estimates that about 800,000 visitors enjoy recreation in the Great Falls area annually. NHP wants to improve their experiences.

This is the most direct acknowledgement of the heavy recreational use of the area that I recall. Most previous NHP planning focused on protecting the historic, cultural, and natural resources of the park. One of the long-term goals of NHP is to maintain a watered canal between Georgetown and mile marker 23 near Seneca Creek. That is well beyond the scope of this plan.

The plan and planning process has four goals:

Identify management strategies that promote the long-term stewardship of park resources.
Continue to offer visitors safe access to high-quality National Park experiences.
Provide an appropriate range of facilities and services.
Proactively engage key park partners, stakeholders, and the public.

CCA provided extensive comments on the draft GFDCP in July 2025. CCA focused on paddlers' issues like river access at Great Falls, both for kayakers who run Great Falls and those who want to put in at Sandy Beach, as well as parking and access at Anglers.

The final GFCDP acknowledges CCA's concerns: "The Anglers parking area lacks formal organization, and can be disorganized and inefficient during high visitation periods. With increased visitation and recreational use, there is greater opportunity for visitor conflicts along the towpath and trail system and towpath users and vehicles along MacArthur Boulevard."

(My reaction: Well, DUH! We didn't' need a consultant to tell us that the Angler's area is a mess or that parking on nice weekends at Swains and Great Falls is inadequate. Still, the leadership's focus on these issues is welcome.)

The plan focuses a lot of attention on Billy Goat Trail Section A because of its popularity and on the buildings around Great Falls Tavern. It also recognizes paddling and boating access as important to visitors' experience.

Social Trails

The plan raises a lot of concern about "social trails" throughout the park. Social trails are any that aren't officially recognized and signed, and they can adversely affect natural and cultural resources. Many of the trails boaters use are, in fact, social trails. I was surprised to learn that the park does not identify any of the river access points boaters regularly use as "river access points." (See "CCA Reiterates Need for Sandy Beach, Anglers Improvements," Cruiser July-August 2025.)

The plan calls for pursuing "formalization of appropriate river access points" at three critical areas:

• Above Great Falls from the tavern parking lot,

• Sandy Beach, and

• Angler's.

A "heat map" image depicts water access for the planning area. Point 1 is for running Great Falls. Point 2 is Sandy Beach. Point 3 is Angler's parking lots.(See the related article in this Cruiser on a wider range of Potomac access points.)

The plan explains that formalization of river access points "would include elements such as signage, river access blazing, regular maintenance, mapping, and education." It recommends "working with partner organizations such as the Canoe Cruisers Association to make needed access improvements such as repairs to the Sandy Beach steps." I appreciate that the planning team paid attention to CCA' s comments on the draft plan and accepted our recommendations.

Parking Congestion

The plan acknowledges that parking lots in the planning area "occasionally fill up on the highest use days during peak periods," but it does not recommend adding or expanding parking facilities due to negative impacts on the surrounding natural and in some cases cultural resources, and because "the substantial time and investment involved in new construction outweighs the potential need for new parking based on the frequency these lots are full." Instead, to address congestion and safety concerns, the plan recommends that the park:

"• Improve the efficiency of the visitor arrival experience to the lots.

• Improve the layout, function and circulation through the lots.

• Improve the distribution of visitors between lots."

Regarding Angler's in particular, the plan suggests delineating parking spots with grids or dots. The plan recommends considering a formal one-way route, improving paths between the lots for better access to the lower parking lot and towpath, and also considering an entrance fee. The plan does not favor a physical toll booth. Better options for fee collection, it says, would be a "cell phone based system, one that requires visitors to pay for entry fees prior to arrival and leaving a pass on their dashboard, or a mobile fee collection unit."

Maintaining emergency vehicle access at Anger's is critical, the plan says.

CCA continues to encourage NHP to meet with interested parties to discuss solutions to parking and access here.

A Huge Positive Step

The GFDCP recognizes what paddlers have known and been requesting for years—the need to include the public in finding solutions that work for all park visitors, not just paddlers. This is a concept plan that focuses on recreation and parking. It's a huge positive step for NHP and the paddling community.

NHP has provided no details as to when it intends to implement the measures in the GFDCP. CCA's River Access Committee members and others will maintain contact with officials to implement aspects of the plan most critical to the paddling community.

For More Information:

Great Falls (MD) Development Concept Plan project (see Document List tab for the final plan)

CCA Comments on the draft GFDCP, July 2025 (also accessible from CCA Home Page)