C&O Canal Towpath

Beautiful! We visit from Texas every few years and this is always one of our stops! It’s a nice walk… (From the parking area to the tunnel). We haven’t made it all the way through but, hope to the next time we come! I have small kiddos and they couldn’t finish it and the dark spooked them… but, for me… It’s a beautiful place to visit… and explore!

«Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.»
― Theodore Roosevelt
Maryland’s C & O Canal Towpath and Paw Paw Tunnel is a unique hike that blends historic manmade innovation and natural beauty. It’s part Indiana Jones expedition, part Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild, part PBS Nature show and part Presidential Naturalist Teddy Roosevelt all in one.
A chilly spring day yielded a bug-​lessened adventure as we traipsed through the marshy lands. he laborious task took 22 years to construct with each worker putting in 15−18/hour days. It’s sad to think that their efforts struggle to stay alive.
The upkeep on the Paw Paw Tunnel has help it age gracefully compared to many of the locks along this path. The brick work on the majority of the tunnel is only seen by the well-​prepared hiker with the use of flashlights. Look carefully and you’ll be able to see a few bats that have taken up residence along these parts. Arrive ill-​prepared and expect to be introduced the water puddles following we weather.
The Potomac River views are also home to countless species not often seen populated areas. (I’ve seen pictures of bobcats and bald eagles) The river bends and winds in some areas along the trail and are ideal for meeting your fresh air quota or setting up camp for a little one-​on-​one with Mother Nature herself.
Fun Facts:
Dimensions of the Paw Paw Tunnel: 3,118ft long; 27ft wide; 24ft high (There are NO LIGHTS inside! — Bring a flashlight!)
C & O years in operation: 1850 – 1924, some sections opened starting in 1830
Speed Limit in Canal: 4 mph
Ghosts: There are legends of a headless ghost and the possibility of dead canal workers submerged beneath the concrete Paw Paw tunnel walkway.

Great place to cycle — grab you bike and head out!

Cumberland has put a great deal of effort into beautifying it’s section of the C&O canal. This section is really nice with a new brick riding section, and a few new little shops popping up for the cyclists. On my visit a farmers market had been going on as well, so you could pick up a fresh apple for the rest of your ride.
This section of the C&O also plays host to the National Park Visitors Center for the Canal. The Visitors Center is in an old Western Maryland train station, and has a great deal of information, and displays on the canal. Overall a really cool stop in Cumberland for the whole family.

I love the C&O Canal and have ridden it twice. If you have a folding bike, you can just take mass transit to Union Station and either ride west on the trail and ride Amtrak back or take the 4 PM train toward Chicago and get out at Cumberland. Otherwise it gets pretty complicated. The BEST place to stay in Cumberland when riding the C&O, before or after, is the Fairfield Inn, which is right on the trail, is bike friendly and has great breakfasts included.

We rode from Great Falls, outside Washington DC, for 165 miles to Cumberland, Maryland. A wonderful vacation! The trail is beautiful and quite wild. We saw bald eagles soaring over the Potomac River (how patriotic does it get?!), turkeys running down the trail, lots of deer, various species of herons in the canal, and lots of turtles. The trail is popular for day users as well as bicyclists who do the whole length of the trail. It is very bicycle-​friendly – there’s water and camping areas every 5 miles or so, gorgeous and luxurious B&Bs which are used to the arrival of dirty bicyclists, friendly towns along the way, and helpful bike shops.
One caution is that the trail can be extremely muddy. After a while, we didn’t care at all, even though we looked like mud-​wrestlers, but it was hard peddling and slowed us down quite a lot. So, be careful when estimating how far and how fast you can go in a day.
A very useful resource is the website
It provides detailed, mile-​by-​mile information.
In Cumberland, Maryland, where the C&O Canal ends, bicyclists can continue on the Great Allegheny Passage trail, a rails-​to-​trail that goes to Pittsburgh.

This review is for the Paw Paw Tunnel on the towpath between Cumberland, Md., and Paw Paw, WV. Visited here recently with my family… since I wasn’t planning on hiking, I had some highly inappropriate footwear (i.e. flip-​flops) and no flashlight, but it was still a fun adventure. My 6-​year-​old actually walked through the whole thing with a minimum of complaint, but I have to admit that I was surprised… because when you get to the middle, it is very dark. And wet. So wear shoes that can get muddy and soaked… and I think it’s really best to have a flashlight along. Beautiful scenery on either side of the tunnel… I thought the WV side was especially nice (see photos).
We also went to the C&O Canal Park in Green Spring, WV, which has a pleasant picnic area. Lots of people fish here and lots of bikers seem to take a break here. There is a lockhouse that you can walk through with a historical exhibit.

Growing up I biked this trail as far as I could tons of times. So it is definitely good for kids. The trail takes you over alot of terrain, but none of it is hard to navigate. Rain does make the trail pretty bad because it is a dirt trail that turns to mud. The trail has beautiful scenery. There are tons of different things too see. The original canal, some places have locks that still are in operation. Lots of wildlife the whole time. You follow the Potomac River for most of the trip. And there are plenty of places to stop and have lunch etc. Bathrooms may be few and far between, but you are in the woods soo… Some areas even have Rangers that patrol the trail to make sure people are ok. I found this out the hard way when they stopped us and told us my nephew needed a helmet on the trail. Can’t say that the whole trail has this though.

My friend Robin and our husbands and I hiked a portion of the C&O Canal Towpath east of Cumberland, MD. The path itself begins in Washington, DC and terminates in Cumberland. There it connects to the Great Allegheny Passage Trail. It is named for the C&O Canal, which ran in this corridor and operated from about 1828 to 1924, although in its later years, it was used only sporadically. Originally, the canal was supposed to continue farther west to Pittsburgh. This would have linked the Chesapeake Bay with the Ohio River, therefore the name Chesapeake & Ohio. But by that time, the railroad was being built in the same corridor. Oddly enough, the rail line was called the Baltimore & Ohio and not the Chesapeake & Ohio, although there was a rail line by that name too.
In 1954, US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas organized an effort to save it from being converted to a highway. His efforts succeeded, and in 1971 the canal became a National Historic Park.
We hiked east about 5 miles, and the round trip took about four hours to complete, not including a lunch stop. Because we were unsure of any facilities or stores enroute, we each packed our own lunches. We bought provisions at a local grocery store, then headed out. And because I’m a type-​1 diabetic, I had to carry «extra rations» and my testing kit. But hey, I’m used to it.
The segment we took was very scenic in places, but diverse too. We saw rail yards (no Rick, you cannot stick around and watch the locomotives). Along the way, we saw forests and the remnants of the canal. Generally the foundations of the locks-​and-​dams remain. Robin and Mike brought their beagle Trixie along. She was well behaved and was able to keep up. They brought a small bowl for her, and with pumps along the trail, they didn’t have to bring extra water.
As I mentioned, the trail originates in DC and connects with the Great Allegheny Trail. Soon, it will be able to bike all the way from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh. Robin and Mike are already toying with the idea of biking it sometime from DC to Cumberland.