Bonds Landing · Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland

Campsite 90

479 ft bench

Site 90 is one of the nine riverside pitches at Bonds Landing, on the Potomac in Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland. It sits at 479 ft on a bench, with running water 0.1 mi south. The drive in is rated “Rough road”.

Lay of the land

The ground it sits on

The elevation model puts the pitch at 479 ft, on a bench — at 0.7° the ground is near enough level that it does not meaningfully face anywhere.

Within the 1.2 km square sampled around it, the site stands 304 ft below the high ground 0.3 mi north.

The nearest mapped water is an unnamed run 0.1 mi south — 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 12.4° above level, to the northeast.

On the March equinox direct sun reaches the pitch at 8:02 am and leaves it at 7:00 pm: 11 h of it, against 12 h 12 m of daylight on an open horizon.

That gap — 1 h 12 m — 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 54 m of direct sun at the June solstice down to 7 h 58 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 March8:02 am7:00 pm11 h12 h 12 m
21 June6:24 am8:16 pm13 h 54 m15 h 2 m
21 December8:20 am4:16 pm7 h 58 m9 h 26 m
Getting there

Rough road

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

You arrive on Bonds Landing Road, which OpenStreetMap classes as a minor public road with a dirt surface.

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

The steepest stretch of that final approach measures 8.3% on the elevation model, climbing 125 ft in total.

The pitch opens directly off the road — no carry.

Measured

Unpaved approach
6.0 mi
Steepest grade
8.3%
Total climb
125 ft
Road to pitch
here
Character

How campers describe it

  • Near road
  • Poor / no cell
  • Water nearby

Low-lying ground near the river; can be wet. Roadside location. No cell reception.

Field note from campers who have stayed here — not an official description, and conditions change.
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.