Ride on a Historic Boat Pulled by Mules!

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Potomac, Maryland, offers historic boat rides for only $5. Two mules pulled our authentic boat, the Charles Mercer, up the canal and thru one of the newly restored locks at Potomac Falls Park, in Potomac, MD.  It was so much fun!
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  The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic park is 184.5 miles of walking paths and great American history.  The C & O Canal was once a lifeline for businesses and communities along the Potomac River in the 19th century.  Agricultural products, lumber, grains and coal would float down this canal and thru its many locks to the various growing communities.

This is a photo I took from the bow of the boat as the lock began to fill with water.  As soon as the water level inside the lock was level, the gates opened and the two mules began pulling us upstream.

The lock gates that were used throughout the C & O Canal were an adaptation of a design by Leonardo DaVinci in the late 1400's.

These are our two mules taking up the slack to begin pulling the boat upriver.

For more information, visit the National Park Service's website for the C & O Canal.

The tow path is also a great jogging path and if you walk 1/5 mile from the parking lot, you will reach one of the most beautiful places just outside the District, Great Falls Park. 

The falls consist of cascading rapids and several 20 foot waterfalls, with a total 76 foot drop in elevation over a distance of less than a mile.  The Potomac River narrows from nearly 1000 feet, just above the falls, to between 60 and 100 feet wide as it rushes through Mather Gorge, a short distance below the falls. The Great Falls of the Potomac display the steepest and most spectacular fall line rapids of any eastern river. (Photo and copy by NPS)

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