Calendar: Fourth of July Weekend in National Parks

I bring you pre-July 4th greetings from Boston, home of the American Revolution. They've still got ripe serviceberries up here, as I discovered last night as I was walking down a city street. There's nothing that quite makes you feel at home in another city like knowing you can eat the fruit off the street trees.

Photo credit: Hourman

But you, dear readers, are not in Boston. You are in the DC area. And you want to know what you should do next weekend, when you're not attending barbecues and parades. Our local National Parks aren't necessarily doing anything in particular to celebrate July 4th -- well, except for a little fireworks thing down on the National Mall, which is also a national park, after all -- but our local hiking clubs will be visiting lots of our local national parks and nationally protected areas in the upcoming weekend. What a great way to celebrate our country.

See our calendar for more details on any of these. And feel free to highlight anything else you want to highlight in the comments section.

Saturday (July 3):

• The Sierra Club is sponsoring a cleanup at Edwards Ferry on the C&O Canal.
• The Center Hiking Club and Capital Hiking Clubs are both hiking sections of the Billy Goat Trail, and the Gold Mine Loop around Great Falls, also in the C&O Canal Historic Park.
• A ranger at Rock Creek Park will lead a 2-mile hike to Rapids Bridge.

Sunday (July 4):

• The Sierra Club is sponsoring a commemorative hike at Bull Run. "At a forest graveyard, we remember our fallen soldiers and ancestors on this commemorative day."
• The Audubon Naturalist Society will hike at Piscataway Park.
• The NoVA Audubon Society will have their regular birding sessions at Great Falls and Dyke Marsh. 
• The NoVA Hiking Club is taking a hike through DC that includes the C&O Canal and Glover Park.

Enjoy!