Glen Echo Park, MD

This warm afternoon was spent geocaching at Glen Echo Park in Maryland on the shores of the Potomac River. It was around 90°F (32°C) and a bit humid. We never saw the river from the park due to the trees. Glen Echo is an only amusement park that is now owned by the National Park Service. The cache was a “letterbox” meaning we answered multiple questions from the plaques and signage around the park with the answers giving the coordinates of the actual cache.

The bridge goes over the Minnehaha Branch which I’ll assume means creek. The next picture was me playing around with the iPhone camera again to get a slow shutter speed picture of the creek. This uses the “Live” feature which takes a short video at the same time as the picture. Software in the phone produces the slow-shutter speed effect by blurring the parts of the picture that changes.

There was an aquarium, multiple art shops, and a merry-go-round. The merry-go-round was very nicely restored and was, by far, the fastest moving one I’ve ever seen. The music was provided by a calliope which included bells, drums and cymbals. And a large selection of music.

The cafe was open and had ice tea which was wonderful due to the very warm temperatures. Once we had found all of the answers to the clues, numbers were transferred to a form which resulted in latitude and longitude. It was only about 100 feet from our starting point.

This faded painting is on the waves of an old bumper car ride. Obviously no cars anymore but it was interesting to see that they had such rides. The ballroom was open and dance class was in session. I’m assuming ballroom dancing. This park was not crowded but then again, it wasn’t fully operational either. It did seem to be a strange place to be operated by the National Park Service.