To my surprise, this trail was found by accident as I had finished an errand in Herndon and needed…read morea place to kill time and explore. This trail/park allows you to see the beautiful nature Northern VA offers with the trees, streams, trails, and surroundings of buildings and landscapes. It's a long trail and it intersects with the WO&D trail. Plenty of space and mileage to explore and perfect for biking/walking/jogging. Get those steps in!

I love walking this easy trail with my dog and am so fortunate to have it located so close from…read morehome. There is plenty of shade and is great for bikers, runners, dog walkers and if you are looking for a simple trail to take your family to! There is also a really neat wall of painted rocks that the community has been contributing to which is awesome because we all get to add to one big piece of art! On a few of my walks here, I've seen deer, raccoons, and foxes so there is a pretty good chance you may spot some wildlife too.

Begrudgingly, I am rating Lake Fairfax with 4 stars. Let me preface by saying I am not an…read more"outdoor-sy" type of gal. Spas and sparkling rosé...more my speed, but I am always up for different experiences. Having said that...I've experienced it, and umm...with mosquito bites still itching, this was cool...not sure if I would say, "yes" again. While he set up the tents, I went to grab a margarita. Upon my return, I was impressed with the setup. Who knew camping could be "chic"? lol. After sending my daughter pics, she said it was, "glamping," not "camping." Lol Honestly, I enjoyed. Just hated the bugs. I love to read. If you do too, bring a good book. The camping ground is spacious. You're assigned a lot where you set up your tent(s). Seems like he had the entire gamut -- blow up couch, blow up bed, portable grill, speakers for music, bug repellent, food, and libations ;-) You will hear everything that is nature at night. I swear I heard a fox howling/barking. All-in-all, it was a cool experience...five days later, still itching from those bites. Oh! There's a water park too...arrive early to get in because they do have a capacity limit.

Wayyyyy back in the day, my dad bought a RV, and the one place that I can explicitly remember us…read moregoing, was Lake Fairfax Park. I also remember having a great time on the lake paddle boating and swimming in the big "L" shaped pool. Fast forward decades later, I have taken a liking to camping. I still consider myself a novice, and over the last 3yrs, I have accumulated some cool stuff. I have an annual camping trip with a large group next month, but I wanted to do a small intimate trip to one of my favorite childhood places. I must say, Lake Fairfax has one big change from when I was a child. It now has a HUGE waterpark that has giganic water slides as soon as you enter. I was a little disappointed to hear from the check-in Park attendant, who had the personality of a disinterested teenager, that the L shaped pool I referenced was no longer there. My picture of laying poolside or chillin in the pool were shattered, because with waterparks, comes tons and tons of young kids.. and honestly, I would just rather not..LOL! Once we made it to our assigned camping lot, I was super pleased at how close we were to the extremely clean rest rooms that were equipped with showers. The camping site was noticeably quiet, almost library quiet, so that suprised me a little. I didn't want to disrupt the flow, so I kept my speaker at a low level. :) All in all, I had a memorable experience at Lake Fairfax Park and I can definitely see myself coming back sometime next Spring/Summer!!

I ran here various times during my stay in VA. Its a nice park to walk around, jog or run. The loop…read moreis mainly unpaved and its about 1.8 miles. Definitely beats running around the neighborhood as you see fellow runners and animals.

Yesterday on July 30th 2026. Royal lake is a fun drop by lake if you just want to cast a couple of…read moretimes. They don't have a bathroom, but they have a portable potty and it was not very clean. You can picnic here they have BBQ grills and it's free to get in. This lake is in the middle of a neighborhood. This lake is stocked with Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, crappies. I would recommend coming and taking a look.

The fishing trip with Shallow Water Fishing Adventures on the Potomac River with Jeff is highly…read morerecommended. Jeff understands navigating the river and provides fishing tips throughout the day. I lost count of the number of smallmouth bass we caught during our half-day, definitely over 20!

Wonderful day on the water. Great guide. I caught a bunch of small mouths, and had a blast…read more Including the one pictured.

This is one of my favorite zen places. Or when I feel artsy, I bring my sketch pad and just…read moreunwind... very scenic views especially at sunrise or sundown. I prefer sundown... There's a steep incline when you get here but its worth it... Its a good work out... Its also good for avid bird watchers!!

Located in the Derwood/Rockville area of Moco!…read more My alumni association recently did a hike here but I missed it so I decided to explore this trail on my own. I visited on an early Sunday morning. I parked off Avery Road and there were a few cars already there. The change of scenery was nice. I enjoyed the scenic and peaceful views!

Great park with plenty of activities happening throughout the week! Lots of trails heading in north…read moredirections along the river- we walked about one mile from the visitors center and reached the Potomac dam which has great views. The trails were well taken care of. I arrived around 9am and there was plenty of parking and not too many other people on the trail

Hands-down, one of my favorite parks to go to in the Great Falls area. There's plenty of parking. I…read morelove to come here with my Doggo and hike, the trail all the way to the view of the falls.

I moved to DC 3 years ago, and have long been looking for a local beach to go to. I've always been…read moretold there's no local beaches, and I'd have to drive to Ocean City or Virginia for a beach. I don't like long distance driving, so that was never really going to happen unless I planned it out in advance. Recently, my sister in law mentioned I check out North Beach, and it was about a half hour away. I couldn't believe no one had mentioned it to me before, specifically those who had lived in DC for years or who were locals and raised here. As she stated, it was exactly a half hour away and it was in Calvert County, MD. I've never visited this side of MD before and I really liked it. It reminded me of beach towns in MA. The beach, itself, though is more of a local beach for residents and quite small. There is also a $25 out of county fee for non-residents, so that was a bit of an annoyance. I don't know that I've paid a beach fee that high before for any beach I've ever visited. I will say I enjoyed my day there, though, and just laid out on the beach with my headphones in while I read a book. It's definitely a family beach and the water is not deep at all. They almost fence it off so you don't go in too far and the water reached knee level for most people. I went in to wade for a bit and saw jelly fish and there was lots of moss. After the beach, I walked the board walk and got some nice photos. I also checked out the local ice cream shop and saw they have little boutiques and a few restaurants. I defiantly would come back again, especially once I have children.

Day trips to nearby beaches from the DMV, put it on your to-do list…read more Our weekends are usually spent marking off bookmarks and going to eat at places our Yelpies recommend. We ended up in North Beach this past weekend, how pretty! Small but nice! Boardwalk and all! There is a private beach but it's for locals. Very very cute quaint neighborhood surrounding the "beach" area. Looking at water will never get old. If you're a water baby, or just love looking at water (lakes, oceans, ponds) then this is it! Super beautiful. Love this! Romantic for couples!

This review is for the splash pad and playground. The incredibly awesome and very, very free splash…read morepad and playground. This new splash pad and playground serves as a reminder that damn Loudon County has some money. We got here at noon with our toddler and only planned to spend a couple of hours and ended up basically being here until they closed in the middle of summer at 8 PM. I think it's an amazing design to have three playground design for different ages right near the splash pad. Luckily it was like 5000° out so kids dried off the minute they left the waterpark to go to playgrounds. So being a wet mess really wasn't a concern. There are a few rules to the waterpark that includes no toys and no dogs and the standard diaper requirements for the incontinent , but otherwise it's pretty open and people were really really well behaved. The bathrooms are amazingly clean for a public bathrooms and offer wide enough stalls to change in. It's highly recommended because of temperatures and the fact that most of the place is concrete to wear water shoes. The only issue we had was that a baby kept putting wet banana peels like this was Mario kart in the splash pad and people kept tripping on them. Most of the water features are well functioning and a lot of fun. The playground themselves range from ages 5 to 12, and have a lot of hills with Astroturf, which is kind of fun to just roll down and they have slides built into them. There are a lot of climbing activities. The slides do get hot on a sunny day, but since the kids are already wet from the waterpark, they seem fine. And the park is very clean. We went on a weekday and it wasn't really that crowded, but I can see how weekends could be pretty full. They also have lots of tables for our families to sit down and enjoy some picnic items.

My kids love it. It's clean and lots of parking space and well maintained. It's worth visiting.read more

Love coming here and doing walks, plus the scenery is great - huge lake. On my recent visit I went…read morewalking with a friend - off the beaten path. Also, took a short visit through the Discovery Center (my first time inside) - will have to check it out another time. I'm already looking forward to my next visit to this park as it is one of my favorites in the county. Visited November 2024

Enjoyed a wonderful barbecue here. The park is large and it's beautiful. We had a picnic pavilion…read moreright next to a playground. The facilities are well maintained here.