John Brown's Fort — Attraction in Harpers Ferry

John Brown's fort and Harper's Ferry are in the same place. This is a national park so if you have one of those America the Beautiful passes it is free. Otherwise you have to pay per car to get in. We have a pass so I didn't check the prices. This place has tons of great hiking. The Potomac and Shenandoah rivers border it. We went in April and there were tons of gnats and tiny bugs that tried to fly in all your exposed holes. Ugh. Bring a fan or get a pamphlet to fan the bugs away!

There is A LOT of walking involved. You need to go to the visitor center and then catch a bus to the city center. They run every 15 mins. Even after you get to the city there is a lot of walking up an incline to see all the small museums, stores, and restaurants. You can drive to the city but there is extremely limited street parking.

At 2pm there was a park ranger that gave an hour long educational speech about John Brown. Pretty...

The fort museum is a 3 hour experience with different educational videos and exhibits. Right now it’s under some light renovation on the outside so the entrance is at the rear. Went on a weekday, Harpers Ferry was busy with school children for a field trip. But…definitely not as busy as the weekend! And all of the kids were very respectful, unlike some others school trips I’ve encountered. Parking is either downtown or 2 miles away at the Harpers Ferry National Park visitor center. You can take a shuttle from there or walk 2 miles along the Shenandoah river to all the historical attractions. You do have to pay to park. Unless you have a national park pass then it’s free at the visitor center, but you have to...

Very picturesque “town”. Harpers Ferry is a lot smaller then I envisioned but cute nonetheless. Parking can be complicated if you don’t prepare. You need to go to the Visitors Center prior to entering Harpers Ferry. Parking inside Harpers Ferry is $20, plus $10 to enter. There is parking outside of town but it is a hike and on a hot day, paying $20 to be close to your vehicle is convenient. It is confusing however and it seems many individuals were unaware there was a fee for parking and per person. I was at Harpers Ferry for a good 2 hours and didn’t see much enforcement. You could possibly get away with not paying the fees but...