Campsites with the most open sky
22 of the 99 campsites with a page qualify.
In a ridge-and-valley forest the thing between you and the stars is usually the ridge. These are the pitches with the least of it in the way: the sky above them is open almost to the horizon in every direction.
The app draws the measured skyline behind the night sky for whichever site you open.
Independent, free, and built by campers. Not a DNR service.
- Booking
- None. Sites are first come, first served.
- Fee
- $10 a night for a standard site, $20 for a group site, paid at headquarters. Maryland DNR.
- Check in
- Sign the sheet at headquarters when you arrive, then go to the site.
- Is it free tonight?
- This page cannot know. The app shows what the sign-up sheet last showed, with the photo's age.
97 per cent or more of the sky above the pitch is clear of the skyline — the top quarter of the forest, where the median site is 94.5 per cent.
- The test
- Open-sky fraction 0.97 or higher, from the horizon profile measured around each pitch.
- Where it comes from
- The skyline is traced from the USGS 3DEP elevation model in every direction from the pitch, and the open fraction is the share of the hemisphere left above it.
- What it does not mean
- This is horizon openness, not darkness. It is how much sky the land leaves you, measured off a terrain model. Nobody has metered sky brightness at these sites and no Bortle class is claimed. The model sees ground, not trees: a pitch under a closed canopy still counts as open sky here.
The first 12, most open sky first
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Campsite 61
Ridge-top, easy in, quiet.
- 100% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,692 ft, southeast-facing ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 3.2 mi unpaved, 17 min from HQ. The pitch sits 1952 ft from the road.
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Campsite 62
Ridge-top, easy in, quiet.
- 100% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,765 ft, ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 3.5 mi unpaved, 18 min from HQ. The pitch sits 2139 ft from the road.
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Campsite 58
Ridge-top, by a creek, rough in, quiet.
- 99% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,545 ft, north-facing ridge crest.
- Rough road, 3.6 mi unpaved, 22 min from HQ. The pitch sits 1306 ft from the road.
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Campsite 59
Ridge-top, rough in, quiet.
- 98% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,655 ft, northeast-facing ridge crest.
- Rough road, 3.2 mi unpaved, 19 min from HQ. The pitch sits 577 ft from the road.
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Campsite 33
Ridge-top, easy in, quiet.
- 98% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,261 ft, northwest-facing ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 3.7 mi unpaved, 19 min from HQ.
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Campsite 16
Ridge-top, by a creek, easy in, some noise.
- 98% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,039 ft, southeast-facing ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 1.5 mi unpaved, 13 min from HQ.
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Campsite 100
Upper slope, by a creek, easy in, some noise.
- 98% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,211 ft, upper slope.
- Gravel road, 0.1 mi unpaved, 33 min from HQ.
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Campsite 17
Ridge-top, by a creek, easy in, some noise.
- 97% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,003 ft, ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 1.1 mi unpaved, 12 min from HQ, 15% grade on the way.
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Campsite 18
Ridge-top, by a creek, easy in, some noise.
- 97% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 993 ft, ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 0.9 mi unpaved, 12 min from HQ, 15% grade on the way.
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Campsite 34
Ridge-top, by a creek, easy in, quiet.
- 97% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,291 ft, north-facing ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 4.0 mi unpaved, 21 min from HQ.
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Campsite 8
Ridge-top, by a creek, easy in, some noise.
- 97% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 1,026 ft, ridge crest.
- Gravel road, 2.1 mi unpaved, 15 min from HQ, 12% grade on the way.
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Campsite 31
Ridge-top, rough in, quiet.
- 97% of the sky is open above the skyline
- 979 ft, southwest-facing ridge crest.
- Rough road, 1.8 mi unpaved, 20 min from HQ, 16% grade on the way.
The other 10 that qualify
Same test, same order. Each number opens that site’s page.
The other shortlists
- Easy-access campsites 12
- Campsites for a low car 12
- River campsites 9
- Quiet campsites 69
- Campsites for a camper van or a trailer 14
- Sunny campsites 48
Every list is built from the same data, and a site can appear on several of them.
Provenance
This list is generated from open data at build time, not compiled by hand. Nothing on it is a recommendation: it is a test, run over every campsite, with the test written at the top of the page so you can disagree with it.
- Elevation, landform, slope, the horizon profile, sun times and the steepest grade on the approach come from the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP).
- Roads, surfaces and watercourses come from OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed ODbL.
- Campsite coordinates and sections come from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources campsite layer.
- Pitch tags — room for a trailer, secluded, a view — come from campers, and are the only thing here that is a judgement rather than a measurement.
- Availability comes from nowhere, because there is no source for it. See above.
Independent, free, and built by campers. Not a DNR service. Greenridge is not affiliated with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or any government agency, and the forest’s own rules always win.