Primitive site · Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland

Campsite 58

1,545 ft north-facing ridge crest

Site 58 is one of the primitive, first-come campsites scattered through Green Ridge State Forest in western Maryland. It sits at 1,545 ft on a north-facing ridge crest, with running water 0.2 mi southeast. The drive in is rated “Rough road”.

Lay of the land

The ground it sits on

The elevation model puts the pitch at 1,545 ft, on a ridge crest tilted about 3.6° to the north.

Within the 1.2 km square sampled around it, the site stands 652 ft above the lowest ground in that square, which lies 0.4 mi east.

The nearest mapped water is an unnamed run 0.2 mi southeast — OpenStreetMap has the channel but no name for it. Treat anything you take from it.

20 ft contours, 1.2 km across, from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. Watercourses from OpenStreetMap. The dot is the site.
Sun and shade

What the ridges do to its light

The tallest ground on this site's horizon stands 2.9° above level, to the south.

On the March equinox direct sun reaches the pitch at 7:20 am and leaves it at 7:24 pm: 12 h 6 m of it, against 12 h 12 m of daylight on an open horizon.

The ridges cost it under twenty minutes that day — for this forest, an unusually open sky.

Across the year the pitch runs from 14 h 54 m of direct sun at the June solstice down to 9 h 14 m at the December solstice.

Direct sun on the pitch, 2026. “Open horizon” is what the same day would give with no ridges in the way.
DateFirst lightLast lightDirect sunOpen horizon
20 March7:20 am7:24 pm12 h 6 m12 h 12 m
21 June5:48 am8:40 pm14 h 54 m15 h 2 m
21 December7:38 am4:50 pm9 h 14 m9 h 26 m
Getting there

Rough road

Loose, rutted or steep in places. Low cars will scrape.

You arrive on Stafford Trail Road, which OpenStreetMap classes as a forest track with a compacted stone surface.

It is graded as an even mix of hard and soft surface (OSM tracktype grade3).

3.6 mi of unpaved driving stands between the last pavement and the site.

The steepest stretch of that final approach measures 11.7% on the elevation model, climbing 467 ft in total.

The pitch itself sits 0.2 mi from that road, which is how far the cooler gets carried.

Measured

Unpaved approach
3.6 mi
Steepest grade
11.7%
Total climb
467 ft
Road to pitch
0.2 mi
Where these numbers come from

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.