Day Trip to Harper’s Ferry, WV

We took a two-hour drive west today to visit Harper’s Ferry, WV, an area rich in history. We planned to take a couple of hikes and ended up doing one along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, a National Historic Park, which runs along the Potomac River from Washington DC to Cumberland. It passes through Harper’s Ferry, about the half-way point on the 185-mile long canal trail.

The Canal was a marvel of engineering achievement for its day, and immigrant workers using primitive tools built the 74 locks, 7 dams, 11 aqueducts and a 3,118-foot tunnel. The construction began in 1828, near Washington DC and took 22 years to finish.

Seventy-four lift locks raised and lowered water levels, working like a staircase to adjust for a 605-foot difference in elevation between Georgetown and Cumberland. Floods damaged the canal over the years, and one in 1924 left the canal in ruins, much of which can still be seen today.

It was a beautiful day, not too cold although there was a fresh breeze along the river. We parked at Lock 34 on the Maryland side, just across the river from Harper’s Ferry and began to hike north, ending up at Lock 37. The photo above was shot just after passing the rapids. I noticed how quiet it had become.

The clouds were coming and going and the water turned lovely shades of colors as the sun hit it and then went back in the shade.

The rough water is in the photo above; you can really hear the water rushing over the rocks.

You can see it, too.

George loves his master. I used PW’s B&W for this photo, brushing away the red of the leash. Then I layered on a texture from Florabella called Platinum. I’m just throwing that out there.

The photo above shows some of the canal ruins.

This is a great place to run, hike or bike and I’d like to head back here some day. I’d also like to tour the old town which we didn’t get to do today. I’ve put it on my list as a good photo op day trip for the near future.

I’ll have more tomorrow, as this is not the only place we visited today.

Until then, my friends . . .

If you have time and would like to view the history and a drawing of the C&O Canal, visit [this link].

Really interesting: To view historic photos of the canal, visit [this link].UPDATE: This link appears to be broken. If you'd like to see photos, visit the first link above, then click on 'Photos and Multimedia' on the left hand bar tab.