Cedarville State Forest

Forested campground with fairly lengthy but level (and thus beginner friendly) hiking just a short distance away from Washington, DC.

If you’ve forgotten anything you can pop on by the Target or Costco right outside the forest.

Also, you can purchase wood while checking in and the Rangers don’t mind if you take a bit extra. Just bring your own starters and kindling (or a small hatchet/saw).

Planes do occasionally fly over the area so consider bringing earplugs if you are a sensitive sleeper. The noise wasn’t really noticeable when I went on a Saturday (the neighboring campsite’s dogs were louder).

We arrived on a Sunday. Very quiet, many open RV spots around us. We had site 18. Which is next to one of the water spigots. The idea is to use it to fill up tanks. Ranger let us know not to stay hooked up to it. 30 amp electric. No issues there. Lots of trails but in June at least the ticks were waaaay too plentiful.

Weekend trip with our Aliner went well. Site was clean and electric worked. Nice gravel paths leading to the bath house.

Pros-Hiking trails are beautiful. We will return with our MTB. Pretty quiet campground. We had tent and trailer neighbors (Inner loop is electric hook ups, outer is tent camping). Sites are spaced well.

Cons- No ranger to be found. If you had an issue this could be a problem. Bath House showers went from hot to freezing randomly. After our second ice cold shower we gave up. Finally, there is no dish cleaning station. Plenty of water spouts but no hot water for cleaning. Maybe we couldn’t find it but other campers didn’t find it either.

Over all it was a nice campground for a quick visit. Definitely worth checking out.

This was a great place to stay. Very quiet and with some amazing trails within walking distance. Very well laid out and excellent signage.

Nice park. Shower room was very nicely kept, nice paths from each campsite to restrooms. Nice quiet place close enough to everything you would need.

Cedarville State Forest is located in Charles Co., MD. It's near Waldorf which offers amenities that you might need. The campground is one loop with 27 mostly spacious sites. Some of the sites were not well tended and had tall grasses while others seemed better groomed. Most were level but some were more steep front to back. Each site had a pretty good gravel area, picnic tables and firepits. Cedarville State Forest offers lots of outdoor activities, none of which we tried, but we saw archery and rifle ranges, lots of hiking trails as well.  Some of the roads around the state forest were in very bad repair. There were pot holes inside of potholes which made the drive around the area very uncomfortable. Overall, it's a nice campground that had availability just a few weeks out which is hard to come by these days!

Great campground hidden away in the city. Clean sites include table and fire pit. Restrooms were clean, closed daily for cleaning between 1 pm - 3 pm. Two showers were included but didn’t use it so not sure about pressure or heat. The ranger delivers firewood to your site within about 10-15 min of calling, which was very convenient. Cost was $5 for 8 logs. Dump station and trash were just outside of the loop. Site 6 was good but not for larger rigs. We have a pop up and had to navigate around a tree that would have been very difficult for larger rigs. Site 5 or 7 wouldn’t have that problem. Bring bug and tick spray - definitely need it! We hiked the brown trail and it was a nice walk. We have AT&T and had two bars pretty consistently. We would stay here again.

We chose this campground based on proximity to work. This campground was priced fairly, however, it does come with its downfalls.

PROS

Let me start with the positive, we were 1 of 3 campers in this loop during our week-long stay. This made it peaceful and quiet. 

CONS

It's close to a Naval base, and therefore you constantly hear airplanes, and helicopters at all times. 

Other than the daily bathroom cleaning, this campground lacks maintenance on sites and walkways. They are both overgrown. 

Playground, fishing, archery all seem blocked off at this time. 

Trails seem open but are across and through hunting areas. They are also muddy from the rain. There is even standing water around our site which brings us to...the MOSQUITOS! We tried fans, tiki torches, and many deet free or light deet products before having to buy 100% deet so we could be outside. These things are awful!

Saw a snake, alligator snapping turtle, and rabbits, before we even reached the gates. Moderate privacy and space, especially considering how close it is to DC. There are some abandon camp loops around the open campground which makes for some cool walks with your dog. Very pretty area with lots of trails and overgrown roads to walk. Equestrian trails go deep into the woods if you want a longer trail. Bathrooms don’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is very nice. Clean, hot water, and good water pressure. The have a new dump station, but the hose has an anti-freeze up in the air with a pull cord valve. This means every time you pull to turn the water on, you get a shower. It was hot, so it was OK. Hahaha. They sell firewood, but they were huge pieces and getting them to start burning was tough. LOTS and LOTS of ticks. I got one, but my wife and dog got about a dozen each. Just bring tweezers. Each site had picnic table, fire ring, and pretty level parking spot.

The small loop here accommodates both tent and RVs, which is fine but some of these damn things are so huge, I have trouble believing they could wedge themselves here. The sites for tents are big enough for a 4 person tent. There are clean bathrooms and the hosts, who I have spoken to many times, are friendly and knowledgeable about the area. There is however a great bit of light pollution at night here due to its approximation to DC. Minimal noise except for planes overhead. There are decent trails to hike here too. There’s a sacrifice of space here- I’d like to see it expand a bit, as the campground can fill quickly, especially if RV’s are involved.

We stayed here a few times just to get out for a bit. It’s quiet, but not too dark, as the lights from DC interfere with the night sky here. The camping loop is small and is shared by tent and RV. The trails are maintained well. I’ve never left this park without at least one tick. No camp store. Firewood is available. Supplies can be gotten nearby. Tent sites can accommodate maybe up to a six person tent comfortably. Bathrooms are clean and showers are warm. Water is readily available.

very well maintained, nice sites that aren't right on top of one another. multiple loops for groups or individuals

I took my girlfriend car camping in Cedarville State Forest. The camping trip turned more into a stay in the tent the whole trip. We set up camp and ate dinner only to be hit by a tornado watch in the area. I spent most of the trip adjusting the water proofing so we stayed dry. When the rain did calm down Cedarville state forest offered some very serene and peaceful views. Which is surprising due to the forests location.