Hiking The Billy Goat Trail For the First Time

After a few days spent with Pre-K kids, I had a day off on Wednesday so went hiking on the Billy Goat Trail near Great Falls. We came here because I recently found out that the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park has many miles of hiking trails. It was $10 to get into the park but if we had come one day later, it would have been free because of the National Park Service centennial celebration. The parking lot was quite full and there were numerous people on the trails which surprised me considering it was the middle of the week.

We picked up a trail map from the museum and walked the C&O Towpath to the Billy Goat A trailhead. The trail is a 1.75-mile hike with lots of rock scrambling. Depending on your speed and the number of people on the trail, it can take 2-3 hours to complete. It was a beautiful hike. The Billy Goat Trail is a trail I would be happy to do many times over.

It’s the Billy Goat Trail because of all the rock scrambling which is what makes this hiking trail so unique. You want to have strong knees and ankles for this hike because the rock scrambling means climbing up, down, and in between rocks that are taller than you. There are a couple of points you’ll have to sit and slide down rocks as well. A huge thing to consider on the Billy Goat Trail is the proper shoes. Typical tennis shoes have a flat bottom and minimal grip… this trail is mostly sand and rocks and you are more likely to slip and hurt yourself if you don’t have shoes with grip.

After completing the Billy Goat Trail, we crossed the canal and walked along the Berma Road. We were supposed to take the Overlook trail but the trail wasn’t marked clearly and we took a wrong turn. We went down a path that wasn’t a trail and wandered up a steep hill before we found the actual trail again. By the time we got back to the car, our round trip hike was just over 5.5 miles.

This post is part of the “Maryland’s Top Scenic Hikes” series on this blog. See the other hikes here.