I Don't Recommend Getting in the Water...

But I do highly recommend taking a trip to Great Falls national park. Part of the C&O Canal, the falls are formed because the Potomac River reaches the fall line at this point. The river drops in elevation from 140ft to 10ft over only a 15mile stretch of river (also known at the Potomac Gorge).

At Great Falls specifically, the river drops 60ft is just over half a mile.

The result of this dramatic change in elevation can be seen in the pictures below:
(note: not all were snapped by me).

Lets Move to the Country

These were taken while wandering around during the famous CONS Ciderfest. An annual event, which I had the pleasure of attending. 

John Muir on Naturalists

I was watching part of the latest Ken Burns documentary “National Parks” and came across a quote that I really liked:

“The man of science, the naturalist, too often loses sight of the essential oneness of all living beings in seeking to classify them in kingdoms, orders, families, genera, species, etc., taking note of the kind and arrangement of limbs, teeth, toes, scales, hair, feathers, etc., measured and set forth in meters, centimenters, and millimeters, while the eye of the Poet, the Seer, never closes on the kindship of all God's creatures, and his heart ever beats in sympathy with great and small alike as "earth-born companions and fellow mortals" equally dependent on Heaven's eternal love.”

It also comes to mind what Nietzsche had to say on the issue:  

“I distrust all systematists and I avoid them. The will to a system represents a lack of honesty.”