Grounds of the Ellipse, part of the President’s Park in Washington, D.C.
Length: 1.5-mile loop
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
A hike around the grounds of President’s Park covers 1.5 miles and takes approximately an hour. While the National Park Service promotes two trails on its website—the North Trail and the South Trail—nobody at the White House Visitor Center had any idea of what I was talking about when I stopped by for a map. Instead, I was given a Scavenger Hunt brochure with the exact same trails on it, only here the trek is one big loop around the park, not broken down into a North and South Trail. I do not know if this brochure is still available, but if it is, it has a good map and plenty of information for anyone hiking the grounds.
White House Grounds Tour Map (click to enlarge)
A President’s Park Grounds Tour does not include the North and South Lawns of the White House, for these areas are open only to the President, his family, staff, and security, except for a few times each year. The White House offers a Gardens Tour and an Easter Egg Roll, both on the otherwise closed South Lawn (there’s not much to the North Lawn). Tickets for the Gardens Tour, which are held two weekends each year, are handed out the day of the event. Tickets for the Easter Egg Roll can only be obtained through an online lottery. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that tickets for either event will be hard to come by. Click the appropriate links above to visit the National Park Service’s website for more information on the events.
White House Easter Egg Roll (photo by Donna Spiewak, National Park Service)
The “grounds” available to the every-day tourist consist of the Ellipse on the south side of the White House (the South Trail) and Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park on the north side (the North Trail). In either case, there is not an actual trail. The main purpose is just to connect the dots between various monuments on the property, so you can make your own route if you want to.
Boy Scout Memorial, part of the President’s Park in Washington, D.C.
There are only two places to get a glimpse of the White House, and the trail passes both of these (you don’t have to walk the trail to get to these views). The view from the Ellipse is quite far away, so for a good photo be sure to have a telephoto lens of at least 400mm.
View of the White House from the Ellipse
The view of the north face of the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue is as close to the building as you can get without attending a White House Tour. The problem is that if you are at street level, you are bound to get the fence in the photo, and possibly a security guard. If you can get on somebody’s shoulders, or put somebody who knows how to use a camera on your shoulders, you should be able to get up high enough to avoid the fence. In the below photo, I simply held my camera above my head and hoped for the best.
View of the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue
I suggest the Grounds Tour only for those interested in the monuments, for you never get any sense of connection to the White House. The Ellipse is nothing but an open field with a parking lot around it that is used by joggers and those out for a leisurely stroll (the loop is .6 mile), and you could be walking through any park in Washington and get the same experience as being in Lafayette Park. The entire trail is out in the open, so on hot summer days the heat can be brutal. If you want some exercise or want to see the area and monuments around the White House, go ahead with the hike, but if you are looking for an extension of the “White House” experience, don’t waste your time.
Visitors walk around the Ellipse, part of the President’s Park in Washington, D.C.
See the following web pages for photos and more information about the monuments found on the grounds of President’s Park.
THE ELLIPSE
LAFAYETTE PARK
With a few exceptions, use of any photograph on the National Park Planner website requires a paid Royalty Free Editorial Use License or Commercial Use License. See the Photo Usage page for details.
Last updated on November 23, 2025
