Campsite 12
937 ft southeast-facing upper slope
Site 12 is one of the primitive, first-come campsites scattered through Green Ridge State Forest in western Maryland. It sits at 937 ft on a southeast-facing upper slope, with running water 0.1 mi north. The drive in is rated “Rough road”.
The ground it sits on
The elevation model puts the pitch at 937 ft, on an upper slope tilted about 5° to the southeast.
Within the 1.2 km square sampled around it, the site stands 201 ft above the lowest ground in that square, which lies 0.5 mi southeast and 77 ft below the high ground 0.4 mi southwest.
The nearest mapped water is an unnamed run 0.1 mi north — OpenStreetMap has the channel but no name for it. Treat anything you take from it.
What the ridges do to its light
The tallest ground on this site's horizon stands 3.2° above level, to the northwest.
On the March equinox direct sun reaches the pitch at 7:36 am and leaves it at 7:08 pm: 11 h 34 m of it, against 12 h 12 m of daylight on an open horizon.
That gap — 38 min — is what the ridges take, and it is rarely taken evenly off both ends of the day.
Across the year the pitch runs from 14 h 24 m of direct sun at the June solstice down to 8 h 44 m at the December solstice.
| Date | First light | Last light | Direct sun | Open horizon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 March | 7:36 am | 7:08 pm | 11 h 34 m | 12 h 12 m |
| 21 June | 6:00 am | 8:22 pm | 14 h 24 m | 15 h 2 m |
| 21 December | 7:52 am | 4:34 pm | 8 h 44 m | 9 h 26 m |
Rough road
Loose, rutted or steep in places. Low cars will scrape.
You arrive on Carpenter Road, which OpenStreetMap classes as a forest track with an unpaved surface.
1.2 mi of unpaved driving stands between the last pavement and the site.
The steepest stretch of that final approach measures 15.5% on the elevation model, climbing 229 ft in total.
The pitch itself sits 80 ft from that road, which is how far the cooler gets carried.
Measured
- Unpaved approach
- 1.2 mi
- Steepest grade
- 15.5%
- Total climb
- 229 ft
- Road to pitch
- 80 ft
How campers describe it
- Trailer-friendly
- Pop-up camper OK
- Near road
Directly adjacent to road with minimal buffer.
Field note from campers who have stayed here — not an official description, and conditions change.
Provenance
Everything on this page is derived from open data at build time. None of it is anyone's opinion, and none of it was measured on foot.
- Elevation, landform, slope, aspect, contours, the horizon profile and the steepest grade on the approach come from the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), read from terrain-RGB tiles at zoom 14.
- Roads and watercourses come from OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed ODbL.
- Sun times are computed from the NOAA Solar Calculator equations against that measured skyline — when the sun clears the ridge, not when an almanac says it rises. Figures are for 2026; they shift by a minute or two from year to year.
- Campsite coordinates come from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources campsite GIS layer.
- Character tags and field notes 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.
Greenridge is an independent community project. It is not affiliated with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or any government agency, and the forest's own rules always win.