Plan Your Visit

This strip of land will always be a special place for me... It appears at the moment when you come over a rise and look down into the Potomac Valley and see the capital spread out with its great monuments... The years never diminished the feeling of pride and elation we felt in those beautiful buildings that belong to all of us.

Lady Bird Johnson, dedication ceremony, April 6, 1976

 

The memorial was designed by M. Mead Palmer, a noted landscape architect, and constructed between 1974 and 1977. Harold Volger was selected to carve the now iconic megalith at the center of the LBJ Memorial Grove plaza. Today the site serves as a memorial to President Johnson as well as a place of recreation where visitors can walk the trails, picnic, and take in views of Washington, D.C.

The 17-acre park is one of the smallest exclusively outdoor units in the National Park Service but still offers a variety of recreational opportunities. The quiet trails through LBJ Memorial Grove connect nearby paths, including the Mount Vernon Trail, popular for cyclists, joggers, and walkers. Boaters and paddlers can view the grove from the river or when launching at the nearby Columbia Island Marina. Families and friends can enjoy a quiet picnic in the small meadow in the grove and bring their fishing poles to fish along the banks or binoculars to watch wildlife from the bridge over the Boundary Channel.

LBJ Memorial Grove is along the 25-mile George Washington Memorial Parkway, which was designed to offer motorists access and views of natural and cultural sites of the national capital area. Visitors can also access the park by car from the parkway, on foot or bike from the Mount Vernon Trail and Boundary Channel pedestrian bridge, or by boat at the Columbia Island Marina.

Find out more about the different things to do at LBJ Memorial Grove!

 

The trails through the grove are often used for short, scenic walks or added on to longer hiking, biking, and jogging excursions.

NPS Photo