Germantown's Hidden Gem: Great Seneca Stream Valley Park

If you drive north on Maryland Route 355 toward Germantown, you might notice a parking lot on the right-hand side near the Gaithersburg-Germantown border.  This small strip of land, marked with a brown and white Montgomery Parks sign, is easy to ignore.  But if you take a closer look, you'll find a hidden gem: Great Seneca Stream Valley Park.

My boys and I headed down the trail from the parking lot with a sense of anticipation.  My younger son, eyeing the narrow, unpaved path through the woods - complete with downed logs and rotten leaves - happily announced that this was a "real" trail.  Trees sporting pale blue rectangular trail blazes - the color of St. Lucia skies, according to the Montgomery Parks Volunteer Trail Ranger Handbook - lent support to his words.  

I knew things were different from our usual when a mountain bike whizzed past us.  We soon spied a sign that designated the trail for three uses: horseback riding, mountain biking and hiking.  I learned about hiking etiquette and trail sharing from this sign: equestrians have right-of-way, hikers yield to equestrians but not mountain bikes and bike riders yield to everyone.  Users of this trail, I realized, were serious about their recreation.

The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail began as an idea to create a hiking path bordering Seneca Creek's riparian zone.  In 1995, the Coalition for Seneca Creek Greenway Trail worked with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to develop the lower portion of the trail from Riley's Lock on the C&O Canal to Maryland Route 355, with volunteers shouldering the labor.  Opened to hikers in 1997, the 16.5 mile lower portion of the trail lies entirely within .

North of Maryland Route 355, the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail is managed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.  This section winds through Great Seneca Stream Valley Park, Goshen Recreational Park and the North Germantown Greenway.  Long-range plans call for the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail to follow Seneca Creek from the Potomac River all of the way up to Patuxent River State Park.

At present, the 7.1 mile upper portion of the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail begins with Great Seneca Stream Valley Park at Maryland Route 355 and runs north-northeast to join up with Lower Magruder Trail just below Maryland Route 124.  Or rather, the two trails meet in theory.  A frequent hiker informed me that there is no bridge at this location - you have to wade across the creek to make the trails connect. 

Our journey -thankfully - didn't include any stream crossings.  Where the trail hugs Maryland Route 355, we were accosted by road noise, but soon the voice of forested woodland captivated us: bird songs, insect calls and a babbling creek.  My boys found animal tracks to inspect, toads to chase and tadpoles to study.  With so much to see and explore, we didn't even make it through Great Seneca Stream Valley Park Unit 1, which ends at Watkins Mill Road.  My sons are now making plans to come back and complete the rest of the trail.

Hiking is more popular in Montgomery County than I had realized.  There are slightly more than 140 miles of sanctioned natural surface trails within the Montgomery Parks system according to Bob Turnbull, natural surface trails program manager.  If you include trails located outside of Montgomery Parks, that number rises closer to 300 miles.  Most of these pathways are mixed use - open to hikers, equestrians and mountain bike riders. 

Like other trails within the county, the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail relies heavily on volunteers to maintain its integrity.  As Donna Linnemann, administrative specialist at Seneca Creek State Park, explained, "We have limited staff at the state parks.  We rely heavily on volunteers to assist us in maintaining the trails."  The county park system also relies upon - and welcomes - volunteers to maintain trails within Montgomery Parks.

I might consider signing my family up to volunteer for trail maintenance once the boys are a little older.  For now, I am still trying to keep them on the trail - and out of the mud.

Want to be a trail volunteer in Montgomery County?  If the trail falls within the Montgomery Parks system, contact Lynn Vismara, group volunteer coordinator at 301-495-2504 or check out the Montgomery Parks Trail Volunteers website.  To help maintain a trail at Seneca Creek State Park, stop by the park office for a volunteer application or call the park at 301-924-2127.