Maryland
Great Falls
13 mi from Washington · ~25 min drive
46ft tall
≈ 14 m
≈ 14 m
Great Falls is a named waterfall in Maryland — a smaller 46-foot cascade, about 13 miles from Washington, DC. Full visit details below.
- State
- Maryland
- Nearest city
- Washington, DC · 13 mi · ~25 min drive
- Height
- 46 ft (14 m)
- Elevation
- 128 ft (39 m)
- Coordinates
- 38.9977°, -77.2529°
From Wikipedia: Great Falls is a series of rapids and waterfalls on the Potomac River in the state of Maryland 14 miles (23 km) upstream from Washington, D.C. As the border between the states of Maryland and Virginia generally follows the low-water line on the Virginia side, the river and falls at Great Falls lie within Montgomery County, Maryland, which abuts Fairfax County, Virginia on the far shore. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Great Falls (Potomac River), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Visiting Great Falls
The exact location is at 38.9977°, -77.2529° — open in Google Maps for driving directions from your location.
Before you go: check current conditions with the appropriate land manager — state parks department, U.S. Forest Service ranger district, or National Park Service unit. Trail access, parking, water levels, and seasonal closures all vary. Several waterfalls in our database are seasonal and may run dry between mid-summer and the next rainy season.
If you've visited Great Falls and have current notes (parking situation, dog policy, seasonality, kid-friendliness), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn more.
Stay nearby
Driving in? The nearest documented metro is Washington, DC — 13 miles away (~25 min drive).
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Other waterfalls within 30 miles
Sources
Location and tag data for Great Falls comes from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL license) ; the Wikipedia article linked above provides additional history. We do not modify the underlying data — this page presents what's already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page or contact us.