Campsite 50
862 ft south-facing hillside
Site 50 is one of the primitive, first-come campsites scattered through Green Ridge State Forest in western Maryland. It sits at 862 ft on a south-facing hillside, with Town Creek 1.5 mi southwest. The drive in is rated “Gravel road”.
The ground it sits on
The elevation model puts the pitch at 862 ft, on a hillside tilted about 24.5° to the south.
Within the 1.2 km square sampled around it, the site stands 139 ft above the lowest ground in that square, which lies 0.5 mi southwest and 166 ft below the high ground 0.5 mi northwest.
The nearest mapped water is Town Creek, 1.5 mi southwest.
What the ridges do to its light
The tallest ground on this site's horizon stands 22.8° above level, to the north.
On the March equinox direct sun reaches the pitch at 7:36 am and leaves it at 7:00 pm: 11 h 26 m of it, against 12 h 12 m of daylight on an open horizon.
That gap — 46 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 13 h 2 m of direct sun at the June solstice down to 8 h 40 m at the December solstice.
| Date | First light | Last light | Direct sun | Open horizon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 March | 7:36 am | 7:00 pm | 11 h 26 m | 12 h 12 m |
| 21 June | 6:34 am | 7:34 pm | 13 h 2 m | 15 h 2 m |
| 21 December | 7:58 am | 4:36 pm | 8 h 40 m | 9 h 26 m |
Gravel road
Forest gravel. Fine in a car, taken slowly.
You arrive on Jacobs Road, which OpenStreetMap classes as a minor public road with an unpaved surface.
5.8 mi of unpaved driving stands between the last pavement and the site.
The steepest stretch of that final approach measures 13.2% on the elevation model, climbing 36 ft in total.
The pitch itself sits 0.6 mi from that road, which is how far the cooler gets carried.
Measured
- Unpaved approach
- 5.8 mi
- Steepest grade
- 13.2%
- Total climb
- 36 ft
- Road to pitch
- 0.6 mi
How campers describe it
- Pop-up camper OK
- Secluded
- Near road
- Good cell service
- Views
Hilltop site well off road; excellent privacy and elevated position.
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.