Shortlist · Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland

Shaded campsites

17 of the 99 campsites with a page qualify.

The other end of the same measurement that finds the sunny sites. A pitch shaded in December is shaded by landform — a ridge to the south, a hollow, a north-facing slope — and landform does not change with the season. In July that is the difference between a tent you can sit in at four in the afternoon and one you cannot.

Compare sun and shade in the app All 99 campsite pages

The app draws the sun on any site for any day of the year, so you can check a shaded pitch on the week you are actually going.

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.
What put a site on this list

7.6 hours or less of direct sun on the pitch at the December solstice — the app’s own threshold for calling a site shaded.

The test
7.6 hours (456 minutes) or less of direct sun on 21 December. That is SHADED_DEC_MAX in web/src/lib/siteSummary.ts, the constant the app uses for the same word. Across the forest the December figure runs from 5.0 to 9.3 hours.
Where it comes from
The sun’s track from the NOAA solar equations, against the horizon measured around each pitch from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. Direct sun means the sun has cleared the ridge, not that an almanac says it has risen.
What it does not mean
The model sees terrain, not trees, so a bare pitch on this list is shaded by a ridge and a wooded one is shaded twice. It is also not cool: shade at noon in a still hollow can be warmer than sun on a ridge with a breeze. And a shaded pitch in December is a cold pitch in December.
The sites

The first 12, deepest shade first

The other 5 that qualify

Same test, same order. Each number opens that site’s page.

Other ways in

The other shortlists

Every list is built from the same data, and a site can appear on several of them.

Where these numbers come from

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.