With the cherry blossoms at a peak this weekend a unique way to see them close up is to take a trip down the Crescent Trail from Bethesda along the Potomac, through Georgetown, around the Lincoln Memorial and finally down to the Tidal Basin. This is almost a 24 mile round trip from Bethesda. The trail begins in the middle of downtown Bethesda.
The trail ends in Georgetown but it is easy to connect to the trail from Rock Creek Park around the Kennedy Center area. The first part of the trail starts at Bethesda Ave a block and a half west of Wisconsin Ave. A building being constructed on Bethesda Ave. does make the entrance to the trail a little hard to see but it is on the right hand side of the construction site. With only a couple of cross streets in the downtown area.............
the trail soon comes to the shaded park like section of the trail down to the Potomac River. The trail is almost all downhill to the river about 3 miles from the start.
Soon after getting to the Potomac River the trail parallels the C&O Canal down to Georgetown.
This time of the year the wild flowers are blooming along with the flowering trees.
Biking along the Georgetown waterfront is one of my favorite rides. On weekends and nice days like this past week it can be a little crowded with pedestrians.
Near the Kennedy Center you can pick up the Rock Creek Bike Trail to go to the Lincoln Memorial area. Crossing a few roads takes you over to East Potomac Park and the Tidal Basin area.
P.S.
Nice thing about this trail is that the area of Bethesda at the start of the trail is full of great restaurants for lunch or dinner. Cava Mezze Grill is one of my favorites
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The trail has some bike trails that connect over to Silver Spring and even over to Connecticut Ave to connect with the Rock Creek Park Trail. I will have to explore these connections to do a looped course back to Bethesda some time this year.
1 comment:
That looks like a really nice ride frm Bethesda. On Friday, a friend and I went to see the cherry blossoms from the southern start point of National Harbor and followed the Mount Vernon Trail to the Tidal Basin. A really nice ride and it was fun to stop in Alexandria. We initially rode up to Georgetown too. Looking at all the traffic and people scrambling for parking just drove home how enjoyable it was to be on a bike trail and seeing so much more than traffic signals and other vehicles!
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