Lake Anne Loop Trail

A 1.7-mile paved loop around the lake at the heart of Reston, beginning and ending on the plaza that started it all.

Lake Anne Village Center opened in 1965 as the first built piece of Robert E. Simon's new town — America's earliest serious attempt at a walkable, European-style village center in the suburbs — and the whole ensemble now sits on the National Register of Historic Places. The walk trades on that setting: raw concrete modernism softened by water and sixty years of tree growth, a fountain playing out in the middle of the lake, the Heron House tower standing over the boardwalk.

The path leaves the plaza along the shoreline before climbing into the residential clusters. Waterview Cluster's pastel townhouses lean out over the water on cantilevered decks, built to evoke a European fishing village. The Van Gogh Bridge, its arches lifted from Bridge at Arles, is the photograph everyone takes, and the cherry trees around it open in late March. A short spur runs through Hickory Cluster, Charles Goodman's modernist townhouses stepped into the slope. The loop closes on a stairway back down into the plaza, past the salvaged sculptural icons — a giant comb, a toothbrush, a bandaid — that once hung above the original Lake Anne pharmacy.

Practical notes

• 1.7 miles, roughly 65 feet of elevation gain, 30–45 minutes at a strolling pace
• Free parking at the Lake Anne Plaza lot; a farmers market takes over part of it on Saturday mornings in season
• Paved throughout and largely stroller-friendly, with a few short hills and one steep flight of steps near the plaza
• Dogs welcome on leash
• Waymarking is thin and the route ducks behind houses in places, so carry a map or GPX rather than relying on signs
• The plaza has a brewery, cafés, a used bookshop, an art gallery and the Reston Museum — worth leaving time to linger at the end