****NOTE June 6 through September on weekends and holidays you need a RESERVATION now due to capacity. You must get the reservation by 1159 pm the night before! Don’t drive there only to be disappointed by being turned away. It includes people walking in. ***
They should charge per person not carload!
Original post;
I love this park. It has a lot of parking which it needs because it can get a lot of visitors. Call before going because I have driven over there and it was at capacity, a hunting day or something.
They have clean bathrooms and tons of large picnic spaces. You can reserve the octagon shaped one maybe more. They could use more water facing benches.
Right now (March 2026) the fishing pier is closed due to ice storm damage. The tiny handicapped parking lot for the pier is being paved and they are actively working on both.
The osprey nest has 2 babies this year. They made it through the storm!
I love that there’s shade to walk around the picnic area, shorter trails and longer ones. Their boat launch is nice and the boat trailer parking is better than most places. They also have long term boat storage on site.
The little visitor center and separate snack shops (seasonal) are clean with friendly staff. The rangers are friendly and helpful but do check if you paid for your entrance and if you have fishing licenses, etc. Just pay the fee because the ticket is much more.
When the pier is repaired it will be handicapped accessible from the new handicap parking area.

Beautiful place I visit often. Clean and peaceful. The Rangers at the entrance are always pleasant.

Used to be a nice place that I loved to visit, but now they hand out parking fines claiming you parked in a prohibited area, even though there were no clear signs indicating that. It just feels like another way to squeeze money out of the middle class. I even booked my spot online ahead of time and got a fine on top of it. Great job. Honestly, it feels completely unfair, and I will not recommend this place.

This park is very busy. We arrived at 9:30 in the morning and there were already a lot of people in hammocks, grilling and wading in the water and a lot of people putting boats in the water. We talked with the staff at the visitor's center and they stated that the park is mainly used for the boat ramp and it's often at capacity. They seemed excited for us to come in and talk with them and were very friendly and welcoming. The kids section of the visitor's center was amazing! My son loved the prepared slides and microscope. He spent a long time looking at all the slides. We decided to walk the Bushey Point Trail which seemed to be an exercise trail, but a lot of the markers were on the ground. The trail to the railroad bridge also seemed to need some TLC and cleanup, it was a little overgrown. We saw osprey pretty close to the bridge and my son found a beautiful shell on the small beach by the bridge. Not one of my favorite parks, but still nice. $10 entry. Lots of the cars parked with boat trailers had annual passes.

I went to check the park out on a sunny, winter day. It cost $10 to get in, but was well worth it, because I spent 5 hours in the park, exploring the beach area and walking the trails. Even in the winter-time, it was beautiful. It was very scenic walking along the beach area, next to the Potomac River. On the Lee Woods Trail, I liked reading about the history of the Lee and Fairfax family and seeing where their homes once stood. I really liked this park and will definitely bring my friends and family here.