Scott's Run Nature Preserve in McLean Is Still Closed

Ask a longtime McLean resident where to take a Saturday walk, and the answer used to come fast: Scott's Run. Ask again this month, and you get a different answer, because the trailhead gates are chained shut and have been since mid-February.

This isn't a one-week hiccup. It's the third year running that McLean's signature nature preserve has gone dark for sewer work, and the current closure has already outlasted its original timeline by months. If you've been waiting for the gates to reopen before you plan a hike, here's what's actually happening, when it ends, and where residents have been going instead.

Why it's closed, and why "three months" became six

Fairfax County's Department of Public Works and Environmental Services closed Scott's Run Nature Preserve on or around February 16 to rehabilitate the siphon facility that carries the county's wastewater under the Potomac River to D.C. Water's Potomac Interceptor in Maryland. The project involves relining 1,200 linear feet of three siphon pipes, 14, 18, and 24 inches in diameter, and both parking lots off Georgetown Pike, plus every trail in the preserve, have been off limits for the duration.

The county's own page now puts the finish date for the sewer work at August 10, with the park reopening after cleanup and maintenance on August 21. That's today, if you're reading this the week it publishes, which means the trails are still closed and will stay that way for another two weeks. The original estimate when the closure began was about three months. Instead it's run closer to six, a gap the county attributes to the project being weather dependent.

This is the third spring in a row, not the first

What makes this closure different from a routine maintenance notice is the pattern behind it. FFXnow's coverage of the announcement put it plainly: the park would be off limits "for a third consecutive spring" to accommodate sewer work. Here's how the last three years have actually played out.

County officials have been careful to note that the current rehabilitation isn't a direct continuation of the earlier emergency cleaning, but the need for it was identified during that same process. Read the three rows together and the story is less about any single closure and more about a piece of aging infrastructure that keeps needing attention at exactly the time of year McLean wants to be outside.

If you've hiked Scott's Run consistently since 2023, there's a real chance you've now lost at least part of three consecutive spring or summer seasons to sewer work at the same trailhead.

Where McLean has actually been walking this year

With the west and east lots both gated, residents haven't stopped hiking. They've mostly redirected to two parks that sit on the same stretch of the Potomac and require only a short drive from McLean.

Turkey Run Park, just off the George Washington Memorial Parkway, has been the easiest substitute. You park at lot C-1, where a large trail map sign marks the start of several route options, and the park stays open to hikers year-round regardless of what's happening at Scott's Run. It doesn't have a marquee waterfall, but it has the same river bluffs and hardwood forest that made Scott's Run popular in the first place, minus the sewer infrastructure running underneath it.

Great Falls Park, also in McLean, is the bigger draw for anyone bringing visitors or wanting a payoff view. The Potomac cascades over a series of steep, jagged rocks here, an 800-acre park built around exactly the kind of dramatic river scenery that draws people to this stretch of the Potomac Gorge in the first place. It's a longer outing than a typical Scott's Run loop, but it's open, it's close, and it doesn't require checking a construction schedule first.

Neither park replaces Scott's Run's specific 0.7-mile approach to its own waterfall or its short, blazed segment of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail. But both keep you in the same river corridor and the same forest character while the county finishes its work.

What to expect when the gates reopen on August 21

Scott's Run's rules haven't changed and won't change when it reopens. Towing is enforced in both lots, so parking outside the marked spaces isn't worth the risk. Swimming and wading remain strictly prohibited, and a sign posted just steps from the waterfall has long warned that violators are subject to a $250 fine. Alcohol, grills, and coolers aren't allowed anywhere in the preserve, picnicking is prohibited, and the park closes at dark with security officers enforcing the rules.

The other thing that won't change is the crowding. Scott's Run has a reputation, well earned before any of these closures started, for filling both small lots fast on weekends. If the trails have taught you anything over the last three years, it's that treating this particular preserve as a guaranteed weekend plan is no longer realistic. Building Turkey Run or Great Falls into your regular rotation, rather than treating them as a backup only when Scott's Run happens to be gated, is the more reliable habit going forward.

Whether that pattern holds for a fourth spring in 2027 is genuinely unclear. The county hasn't said this rehabilitation is the last word on the siphon system, and the last two projects weren't supposed to need each other either.

Knowing which trail is actually open this week is a small thing, but it's the same kind of attention that goes into knowing a block's resale history or which streets flood after a hard rain. That's the work behind Nelson Marban's neighborhood coverage of McLean, whether or not you're thinking about a move. If you'd like these updates in your inbox, or you're curious what your own McLean home is worth in today's market, you're welcome to get a complimentary home valuation whenever the time feels right.