Rachel Braun's Directions to WES for Virginians
via Rock Creek Park

From your location in VA, pick the best way to get on Rock Creek Parkway (e.g., from the Memorial Bridge, or via 66 into the Virginia Avenue area.

• Take Rock Creek Parkway toward zoo/DC/MD.
• After the exit for Massachusetts Avenue, get into the right hand lane if not already there.
• Take the right fork for Beach Drive.
• Continue 'straight' on Beach Drive, i.e., follow the main curvy road without taking turnoffs for the zoo, Porter, Piney Branch and Blagden.
• Immediately after the right hand exit for Blagden, move to the left lane. (You will have to, because Beach Drive closes on the right for weekend hours at that point.) Bear left onto Broad Branch.
• Turn right at the second right onto Grant Ave. (There is no stop sign.)
• Take Grant to the stop sign at the end, then turn left. You will see a sign for the Nature Center. (Make a mental note to visit it sometime.)
• Pass picnic areas 13 and 14. Continue straight (i.e., bear slightly left) through stop sign. Cross Military Road at the signal, continuing on Oregon Ave. St. John's College High School will be on your left.
• Turn right at the stop sign onto Wise Road. This will be the first right-turn opportunity after Nebraska Avenue.
• Go to the end of Wise. Turn left onto Beach Drive.
• Turn right at the next turn, about a block's distance away, onto West Beach Drive.
• Turn at the stop sign at the first right turn you can make, onto Kalmia Road.
• Stay on Kalmia by:
  • turning right at the next stop sign
  • bearing left at the following stop sign.
• Follow Kalmia a few blocks, parking just short of 16th Street. WES will be on your right (south of you), the first white building south of Kalmia on 16th.
  

To reverse these directions:

• Turn around on Kalmia.
• Follow Kalmia back to West Beach Drive by turning (bearing) right at the stop sign near the Lowell School, then left at the next stop sign.
• Turn left at stop sign onto West Beach Drive.
• Turn left at end of road onto Beach Drive.
• Make immediate right onto Wise Road.
• Turn left at first stop sign onto Oregon Avenue.
• Go through the light at Military Road, into the Park.
• Bear right at the fork. Pass picnic areas 13 and 14. Make the first right turn onto Grant (there is no street sign). If you miss this right turn, make the next right turn and continue following these directions.
• At end of road, make a left onto Broad Branch. The stream will be on your left.
• At the end of Broad Branch, turn right onto Beach Drive.
• Follow Beach Drive past the zoo to Rock Creek Parkway. Note that there is sometimes a back-up in the tunnel around the zoo on nice days. It moves, though.
• Left onto Rock Creek Parkway. Note that while there is traffic coming from both directions, the traffic from your right is in its own lane, and you will turn into a lane reserved for Beach Drive entrants. So pay more attention to the traffic on your left and don't freak about appearing to merge with traffic from the right. You're not.
• Take Rock Creek Parkway to roads in Virginia: stay in the right hand lane to eventually get to Memorial Bridge, or left hand lane to take Virginia Ave to I-66.