(Carroll, Howard, Montgomery, Harford, and Cecil counties)

Maryland’s Central region is a mix of rural, suburban and urban areas. The cities of Baltimore and Washington D.C. are located in this region, making it the most populated and urbanized in the state. But the area also features large blocks of protected and natural lands like Patapsco, Susquehanna and Gunpowder Falls State Parks and the C&O Canal National Historic Park. The landscape is characterized by rolling hills and valleys crisscrossed by swift moving streams that feed into larger creeks and rivers. The smaller waterways in this part of the state are typically rocky and shallow and are significantly influenced by periods of drought and/or rain events. The larger waterways, including the Middle Potomac, Patapsco, Patuxent, Gunpowder and Susquehanna rivers, provide excellent recreational boating opportunities.

Potomac River Water Trail and the C&O Canal: Middle Potomac

This water trail spans approximately 100 miles of the Middle Potomac River corridor and parallels the C&O Canal National Historic Park between Sharpsburg, MD and Washington D.C. This map set picks up where the Potomac River Water Trail and the C&O Canal: Upper Potomac map set leaves off. Maryland Department of Natural Resources is working in partnership with the C&O Canal National Historical Park and many other state and local agencies that have a presence along this section of the river in Virginia and Maryland, to create a new water trail map set for this portion of the river. This map set was created by the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB) in the 1970s but is no longer available in hard copy. However, the ICPRB has redrawn and digitized the maps so they can be downloaded and printed in a series on 8.5" x 11" paper. To download the maps visit https://www.potomacriver.org/resources/maps/mapdownload/.