Modeled view from campsite 90, Green Ridge State Forest: the terrain, sky and sun computed for 22 October, facing the sunrise. Not a photograph. Look around in 360
Modeled view, not a photograph: the terrain and sky around this pitch, computed for 22 October from the elevation model, with the sun where it will be. How it’s made
Bonds Landing · Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland

Campsite 90

479 ft flat shelf

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 flat shelf, with running water 0.1 mi south. The drive in is rated “Rough road”.

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.
In short

Flat shelf, by the river, rough in, quiet.

  • Modeled479 ft, flat shelf.
  • ModeledRough road, 10.8 mi and 40 min from HQ, 6.0 mi of it unpaved.
  • ModeledThe Potomac 659 ft south.
  • ModeledOut of earshot of the range, the interstate and the freight line.
  • CommunityRight by the road.
  • CommunityDescribed by campers, not yet photographed for Greenridge. Everything else here is modeled.

Modeled from USGS elevation, OpenStreetMap roads and the sun   Community reported by campers

Sun and shade

Hours of direct sun

NESWN 11:00 am · on the pitch
The horizon around site 90, east on the left, south in the middle, west on the right, with the sun's path on 22 October: amber where it reaches the pitch, dashed where the ridge hides it. The fainter arcs are the other dates the site’s 360 view shows. Its highest ridge stands 12.4° above the horizontal to the northeast. Sampled 144 times out to 9 km from the USGS elevation survey. Every sun time on this page is computed against this line.
8hJan9hFeb11hMar12hApr13hMay14hJun14hJul13hAug11hSep10hOct9hNov8hDec
Hours of direct sun on the pitch by month; the grey behind each bar is the full day the almanac gives with no ridges in the way.

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.

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
Lay of the land

The ground

The elevation model puts the pitch at 479 ft, on a flat shelf. At 0.7° the ground is level enough that it does not face anywhere in particular.

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 maps the channel but has no name for it. Treat any water from it before drinking.

20 ft contours, 1.2 km across, from the USGS elevation survey. Watercourses from OpenStreetMap. The dot is the site.
Next door

Nearby sites

How to choose between them · All 100 sites

On these shortlists: On the river · Quiet · Near a trail · All shortlists

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.
Evenings here

When the ridge takes the sun

  • 20 MarchSun off the pitch at 7:00 pm, 28 minutes before sunset
  • 21 JuneSun off the pitch at 8:16 pm, 32 minutes before sunset
  • 22 OctoberSun off the pitch at 5:54 pm, 32 minutes before sunset
  • 21 DecemberSun off the pitch at 4:16 pm, 40 minutes before sunset

For tonight, with the moon, darkness and the overnight low, open Site 90 in the app.

What happened near here

Many of the oldest farmhouses around Green Ridge are log, and most of the logs are hidden under later weatherboard, insulbrick or asbestos shingle.

Log houses and the families who farmed the ridges · 1780s–1910s · about 0.4 mi from this site, at Maryland Department of Forests & Parks Log House

Before the forest there were farms, most of them small. The Maryland Historical Trust's surveys of the 1970s–2000s recorded dozens of farmhouses in and around Green Ridge, and the oldest of them are log. Along Maniford Road and Town Creek stand the Athey house of about 1804, a one-room log house on a farm the Atheys worked for nearly a century; the McLaughlin house of about 1815, recorded as one of the finest two-story log houses in the county; the Wigfield house of about 1820, set directly on the ground without a foundation; the Amick 'saddlebag' house of about 1825, two log pens sharing one stone chimney; and the Hose house of about 1834. On Town Creek a sandstone chimney is all that stands of a stone house built in 1787. Log building went on for a century because timber was close at hand. Barney and Samuel Shipley each built a log farmhouse within a mile of the Pennsylvania line after buying land in 1881, and the Whorton and Carder houses date from the 1890s. Most were later covered in weatherboard, insulbrick or asbestos shingle, so the logs survive out of sight. The surveys keep the names: David Mann, a Pennsylvania-born farmer who had twenty-two children; George W. Hymes, who built his own house, windows included, at seventeen in 1910; and the Lashleys, whose farm near Flintstone was paid for in 1783, its survey records, 'with slaves'.

What is left to see: Most of these houses are private and several are posted; see them only from the public road. The log house near Kasecamp Road is on state land but was deteriorated and boarded when surveyed; do not enter.

Sources (2)
  1. MHT surveys AL-II-B-035 (Athey), AL-II-B-033 (McLaughlin), AL-II-B-032 (Wigfield), AL-II-B-034 (Amick), AL-II-B-036 (Hose), AL-II-A-061 (Old Chimney), AL-I-A-046/047 (Shipley), AL-II-A-062 (Whorton), AL-II-B-029 (Carder), AL-I-B-037 (Mann), AL-I-A-049 (Hymes) — read via the repo summaries
  2. MHT survey AL-II-A-117, Lashley Brick Farmhouse

More of the forest’s history

What happened near here

In August 1932 the State recorded its deed for 11,616 acres of abandoned orchard land, the start of what is now a 47,560-acre forest.

A forest from the wreckage · 1931 → today · about 0.4 mi from this site, at Maryland Department of Forests & Parks Log House

By the end of the 1920s most of the failed orchard land belonged to the Allegany Orchards Corporation, and the Depression ended any revival. The land was cutover, burned, and planted with failing orchards. In 1931 the state forestry service under State Forester Fred W. Besley took an interest in it, and in August 1932 the deed to the State for 11,616 acres was recorded. DNR's own publications give other figures for the first purchase, about 2,000 acres in 1931 and about 14,400 acres; the 1932 deed is the only figure tied to a record. The first state work on the land was done by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1933, chiefly fire control. The State kept adding land. By DNR's 2019 plan the forest covers 47,560 acres, the second-largest state forest in Maryland and about 12 percent of all the land DNR manages. Most of it is the even-aged oak that grew up after the clearing.

What is left to see: The oak woods themselves: whole hillsides of trees of about the same size, dating from the same years of abandonment.

Sources (4)
  1. MHT survey AL-I-A-055, Green Ridge Camp CCC Headquarters Building, CCC Camp S-53 (Paula S. Reed & Edie Wallace, 2009; cites Mash, The Land of the Living)
  2. Maryland DNR, Sustainable Forest Management Plan for Green Ridge State Forest (2019), §1.1, §2.4.3, §2.11–2.14, §3.2, §5.12, §9.2
  3. Francis "Champ" Zumbrun, "Point Lookout in Green Ridge State Forest", DNR Centennial Notes
  4. Maryland DNR, Green Ridge State Forest Driving Tour (PDF)

More of the forest’s history

Where these numbers come from

Provenance

Most of this page is computed from public data; the lines marked Community come from campers. The computed data was last rebuilt from its sources on 28 September 2026.

  • 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 its elevation tiles.
  • Roads and watercourses come from OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed ODbL, as mapped at that rebuild. A road can wash out or close after it.
  • Sun times are when the sun clears that measured skyline, computed with the NOAA Solar Calculator equations. They are for 2026 and shift by a minute or two from year to year.
  • The pin comes from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources campsite GIS layer.
  • Evenings here are the same sun times, on four dates of the year: when the sun drops behind this pitch's measured skyline, against the open-horizon sunset.
  • What happened near here comes from published history: Maryland Historical Trust survey forms, Maryland DNR, the National Park Service and the C&O Canal's historians, and the records themselves. Each story lists its own sources; a story appears only when one of its catalogued places is within about two miles, and the distance is measured, not estimated. All the history sources.
  • The modeled view and the 360 are rendered from a 3D model of the forest, from the pitch, through a whole day in each of five seasons. The ground is the same elevation data plus lidar. Tree heights come from lidar; the species mix and tree form come from US Forest Service inventory plots in Allegany County, so no tree here was surveyed individually. The tent, table and fire ring are the same stand-ins at every site. When a photograph from the site, ours or one a camper sends, shows the model is wrong about where the pitch is or what the ground is like, the model is corrected and the 360 is rendered again. How the 360 is made.
  • Character tags and field notes come from campers. They are judgements rather than measurements.
  • Availability is not on this page because nothing publishes it. The app shows what the last photograph of the sign-up sheet said, and how old that photograph is.

Greenridge is independent and is not affiliated with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or any government agency. The forest's own rules apply.

Something wrong here?

Every message is read. For rules and closures, Maryland DNR is the authority.