The Rock Creek Park trail as a whole is actually pretty nice, but I think that our collective experience on the Rock Creek Park trail is clouded by the bad aspects of the trail in parts around the National Zoo and Beach Drive.
(Note: I am not arguing that it should be on the top 15 list especially when the W&OD was left out, but I am arguing that the majority of the trail is pretty good. Also, the distances are approximate.)
That said, if you split the Rock Creek Park trail into sections heading north from the Lincoln Memorial, the quality becomes different:
- along the Potomac River waterfront (0.8 miles) – crowded but has nice views of the VA side along with the Georgetown Waterfront and TR Island, pretty good
- Potomac River to Broad Branch Rd (4.7 miles) – narrow, crowded, poor visibility, views of car-infested Rock Creek Parkway, surface conditions are bad, all in all pretty terrible
- Broad Branch Rd to Meadowbrook Park (4.8 miles) – on-street, has nice views, great on weekends, poor on weekdays due to car traffic, does not really qualify for being a trail here
- Meadowbrook Park to Garrett Park Road (7.1 miles) – trail is pretty good, heading through parks much like 4MR, but you’re likely to prefer taking the parallel road (Beach Dr) when it’s available as it’s flatter
- Garrett Park Road to Lake Needwood (7.3 miles) – best part of the trail, heavily forested with a moderate uphill to the lake, the bridge over Veirs Mill Rd is really nice, and only bad part is the short boardwalk/wood portion undergoing construction
So, I can’t say the trail is great, but there are some less-traveled portions that are quite good and help to average the quality of the trail out a bit.
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