Seneca Creek is a 5.8 miles (9.3 km) stream in Montgomery County

Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, roughly 16 miles (25.7 km) northwest of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 It drains to the Potomac River

Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...

.

Course

The creek

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 begins with two main tributaries:

• Great Seneca Creek, 21.5 miles (34.6 km) long, begins in Damascus
  Damascus, Maryland
  Damascus is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.In the early part of the 20th century, there was an incorporated municipality there for about a quarter century, but it no longer exists...
  
   and flows south past Montgomery Village
  Montgomery Village, Maryland
  Montgomery Village is a northern suburb of Gaithersburg in an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a large, planned suburban community, developed in the late 1960s and 1970s right outside Gaithersburg city limits...
  
  , Germantown, Gaithersburg
  Gaithersburg, Maryland
  Gaithersburg is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The city had a population of 59,933 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest incorporated city in the state, behind Baltimore, Frederick, and Rockville...
  
   and Seneca Creek State Park
  Seneca Creek State Park
  Seneca Creek State Park encompasses approximately 6,300 acres in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, and extends along 14 miles of Seneca Creek to the Potomac River.-Clopper Lake Day Use Area:...
  
  .
• Little Seneca Creek
  Little Seneca Creek
  Little Seneca Creek is an stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly northwest of Washington, D.C. The creek drains portions of Clarksburg, Germantown, and Boyds. It rises south of Damascus and flows southward about to Little Seneca Lake, a reservoir created by construction of a dam on the...
  
  , 14 miles (22.5 km) long, rises in the Clarksburg
  Clarksburg, Maryland
  Clarksburg is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Northern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located along the Interstate 270 technology corridor about 4 miles north of Germantown, MD. As of Census 2010 its population is 13,766....
  
   area, flows south through Little Seneca Lake
  Little Seneca Lake
  Little Seneca Lake is a reservoir located near the Boyds community in Montgomery County, Maryland. The lake was created by the construction of a dam on Little Seneca Creek. It was built to provide an emergency water supply for the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, and it also provides a...
  
   and Black Hill Regional Park, and the community of Boyds
  Boyds, Maryland
  Boyds, Maryland is an unincorporated community in rural Montgomery County, Maryland, located north of Washington, DC. Its ZIP Code is 20841.According to the United States 2000 Census, the ZIP Code Tabulation Area for the town of Boyds covers an area of and has a population of 2,025...
  
  .

These tributaries converge near Darnestown

Darnestown, Maryland

Darnestown is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.-Geography:As an unincorporated area, Darnestown's boundaries are not officially defined...

. Another major tributary, Dry Seneca Creek, empties into Seneca Creek west of Darnestown. The creek continues south and passes under an aqueduct

Aqueduct

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

 of the Chesapeake and Ohio

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, D.C. The total length of the canal is about . The elevation change of...

 (C&O) Canal before it flows into the Potomac River at Riley's Lock (Lock 24 on the Canal). There is about a 600 feet (182.9 m) change in elevation from the stream's upper sources to its mouth at the Potomac. Seneca Creek has a watershed

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 area of 121 square miles (313.4 km²).

Recreation

Depending on conditions, parts of the creek are navigable by light watercraft, such as kayak

Kayak

A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...

s or canoe

Canoe

A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

s. At Riley’s Lock there is a boat ramp into the creek which provides access to the Potomac River.

An area of about 6300 acres (25.5 km²) along 14.75 miles (23.7 km) of the creek has been set aside as Seneca Creek State Park

Seneca Creek State Park

Seneca Creek State Park encompasses approximately 6,300 acres in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, and extends along 14 miles of Seneca Creek to the Potomac River.-Clopper Lake Day Use Area:...

. It has trails including the 16.5 miles (26.6 km) Seneca Creek Greenway Trail, the 10 miles (16.1 km) Schaeffer Farm Trail, and many shorter and easier trails. Parking and picnic areas are provided at various locations in the park. Long Draught Creek, a small tributary north of Gaithersburg has been dammed to form the 90 acre (0.3642174 km²) Clopper Lake which is the centerpiece of the park's day use area. This area includes multiple picnic areas, a disc golf

Disc golf

Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...

 course, boat rentals for the lake, and restroom facilities.

During the 1920s and 1930s Seneca was a popular vacation spot for people from lower Montgomery County and Washington who came to Seneca for the cooler temperatures, boating, swimming, and fishing. There was a hotel near the canal and cottages lined the creek until they were washed away or destroyed by the several flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

s that have affected this area. Unfortunately Seneca has been the site of many drownings and boating accidents over the years. Today the area is a popular local recreation area.

External links

• Real-time Water Flow Data for Seneca Creek - US Geological Survey
• Seneca Creek State Park - official site
• "The Great Seneca Creek Watershed." Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection.