Debbie and I decided to take a quick Sunday morning motorcycle ride this past weekend. Our ride took us to three national parks in about 5 hours!
Leaving home about 8AM we headed out to the George Washington Parkway (a national park). It took us about an hour to get to the southern terminus which is also Mount Vernon home of George Washington. Riding north on the parkway gives the rider a wonderful, at times panoramic, views of the Potomac River and surrounding country.
Coming abreast of Washington D.C. the view is remains panoramic as well as breath taking. The Washington and Lincoln Monuments clearly in view, the Kennedy Center and the spires of Georgetown make the few minutes you ride past the city quite awe inspiring. Just past those sites you come across Theodore Roosevelt Island. This is an often a much under looked memorial to a great president. Take the time to walk across to the island and view this memorial. We did not stop this time…the parking lot was full, otherwise it would have been 4 national parks in 5 ½ hours.
The second park of this motorcycle ride was the C&O Canal National Park. If you follow this blog you will see that I am attempting to get to all the motorcycle accessible stops along the canal. I have knocked out a few but there is a lot of stops remaining.
Lastly we stopped in and took a look at Glen Echo National Park. Just a short distance from the Clara Barton Parkway (named after the founder of the American Red Cross) this National Park started life in 1891 as a school and in 1911 transformed in to the premier amusement park of the great D.C area. In 1971, shortly after the amusement park closed the Park Service took over and it is now a national park! The park is an easy motorcycle ride coming out of or into Washington D.C.
Leaving Glen Echo we returned to the Clara Barton Parkway and headed west towards home. All in all…a great day for a motorcycle ride!
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 