The sand permit, and the list they check you against
Assateague Island National Seashore is the reason this state is on the list. The Park Service licenses over-sand vehicle use, prices it from 110 to 200 dollars depending on the access you want, and sells it one way only: "OSV permits may ONLY be purchased online at recreation.gov." A permit runs one year from the month you buy it. Rental cars are refused outright.
The vehicle itself has to fit inside published limits: four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, no more than four wheels per axle, no more than two axles, 26 feet long and eight feet wide at most. Then there is the equipment, and this is the part worth reading twice, because park staff may inspect for it. A non-plastic shovel with at least a six inch square blade and an 18 inch handle. A jack that will lift one wheel clear of the sand. A jack support, at least 12 by 12 inches, in non-bending steel, five-eighths inch plywood or inch-and-a-half board. A tire gauge that reads down to 15 pounds or less. And a rope, strap, chain or cable at least ten feet long with 6,000 pounds of pulling strength. Tires go down to between 15 and 20 pounds.
Driving is capped at 25 miles an hour and drops to 15 within 100 feet of another vehicle, wildlife, a pedestrian or a horse. Cutting circles, defacing the beach and driving on dunes or vegetation away from posted crossings are prohibited at all times. The 200 dollar Bullpen permit is the only way to stay overnight on the sand, and it is written for a particular rig: only self-contained, hard-sided vehicles with an approved toilet and permanently installed waste tanks holding two days of waste may park there overnight.
The season is the constraint nobody plans for. The zone "will be subject to partial or total closure to all vehicle, boat and pedestrian use during the nesting season which could last from March 15th to August 31st or possibly later." That is five and a half months of the year during which the ground you drove last time may simply not be open, and the park publishes no mileage for the zone in text, only in map images.
Source 5
One island, two agencies, two answers
Assateague is shared, and the halves do not run the same way. Assateague State Park sits inside the same barrier island under the Department of Natural Resources, with 345 campsites and two miles of ocean beach, and its rule is flat: "No motorized equipment may be used for set up (ex. no trucks/vehicles allowed on the beach)." Park reservations run from the last week of April through the last weekend of October and open 365 days ahead. Day use is five dollars a person in summer and five dollars a vehicle the rest of the year.
On the federal side, the drive-in campgrounds at Oceanside and Bayside are 40 dollars a night with no hookups. Oceanside requires reservations from 15 March to 15 November; its Loop 1 closes from 16 November to 14 March while Loop 2 goes first come. Bayside books year round, six months ahead. Camping is limited to 14 consecutive days and 28 cumulative days in each of the summer and winter seasons, and each drive-in site takes six people, three tents and two vehicles, or one vehicle and a trailer.
The backcountry sites are a third system again, and they are not for drivers. Little Levels and State Line sit oceanside, Tingles Island, Pine Tree, Green Run and Pope Bay bayside, reached on foot or by boat between two and a half and 13 miles from the Maryland ranger station. A seven-day permit is ten dollars a person from 16, issued first come with no reservations. The Park Service states plainly that "OSV users are not permitted to camp in the backcountry sites." Buying the sand permit does not buy you a bed.
Source 8
Western Maryland: the forests, and which miles you may drive
Three state forests carry the western end. Savage River covers approximately 55,185 acres in the northeastern quadrant of Garrett County, though its own trail guide says "more than 54,000 acres"; more than 12,000 of them are designated State Wildlands. Green Ridge is 49,012 acres on the live page, the only state forest in the Ridge and Valley province, and the Department calls it the largest contiguous block of public land in the state; its visitor guide says "more than 47,000 acres" and its driving tour says 47,560, so the number you find depends on which sheet you pick up. Potomac-Garrett runs approximately 19,000 acres in the southwest of Garrett County.
Savage River is the one that spells out the distinction a driver needs. Its guide says some of the forest trails "are gravel roads, which are open to motor vehicles at various times", and then, on the 12-mile Meadow Mountain Trail, tells you exactly where the line falls: the four-mile section near I-68, called East Shale Road, is open to off-road vehicle use, and the remaining eight miles southwest of New Germany Road are closed to them except for snowmobiles. Poplar Lick is a six-mile forested dirt road, the remnant of a 1934 Civilian Conservation Corps roadway, with 13 stream crossings and only five bridges. Margraff is 7.5 miles of circuit gravel roads at around 2,800 feet with campsites along them.
Green Ridge is the road forest rather than the trail forest. It holds 100 primitive designated campsites with a picnic table and fire ring each, registered at headquarters before you occupy one and taken first come, and a self-guided driving tour that begins and ends at headquarters and runs approximately 44 miles in about three hours by the tour sheet, approximately 45 on the visitor guide. The tour leaves pavement once, onto Tower Road out of the Town Hill Vista car park, past a fire tower built in 1931. Hours are sunrise to sunset.
Savage River has 70 primitive sites first come, plus the Bear Pen group site off Savage River Road by reservation. Both forests sell nothing on site beyond a kiosk envelope, and all three post their own road and bridge closures, which in this country is the usual reason a route is shut. Read the forest page in the week you travel rather than trusting any map, including this one.
- 01Savage River State Forest: approximately 55,185 acres, 70 primitive sites, gravel roads open to vehicles at various times
- 02Green Ridge State Forest: 49,012 acres, 100 primitive designated campsites, a 44-mile driving tour, sunrise to sunset
- 03Potomac-Garrett State Forest: approximately 19,000 acres, four named off-road vehicle trails
- 04Chesapeake Forest Lands: 75,376 acres of Eastern Shore working forest in 187 separate management units
- 05Pocomoke and the rest: part of a system the state puts at more than 214,000 acres in total
Source 24
What the state asks of a vehicle
Maryland defines an off-road vehicle as "a motorized vehicle designed for or capable of cross-country travel on land, water, snow, ice, marsh, swampland or other natural terrain", and its own list of what counts includes automobiles and trucks alongside motorcycles, amphibious machines and golf carts. By that definition your truck is one. The relief comes in the next sentence: "Licensed vehicles registered with the MVA are exempt from purchasing the off-road vehicle permit when using Department of Natural Resources public lands." A plated, registered vehicle does not buy the sticker.
The restriction that does bind is about place, not paperwork. "ORVs are only permitted to be used on State Forests or Parks on designated ORV trails." The designated list is short and the Department publishes it by name: at Potomac-Garrett, the Backbone Mountain and Burkholder Road trail at 2.7 miles, Piney Mountain at 1.7, Snaggy Mountain at 3.2, and Wallman and Laurel Run at 2.4 and 3.9. At Savage River, St. John’s Rock, Meadow Mountain, Margraff Plantation and Bowman Hill North, for which no mileages are published. The forest’s own trails map gives longer figures for the same four Potomac-Garrett systems, 6.7, 2.5, 8.5 and 10.2 miles, because it is measuring whole trail systems rather than the segments designated for driving.
Wolf Den Run State Park is the exception and the reason to bring a full-size rig. On 1,700 acres of mixed forest, the Huckleberry Rocks area holds 12.5 miles of trail open to motorised recreation, of which 6.5 miles are open to full-size vehicles. Every vehicle needs the DNR sticker or MVA registration, plus proper noise suppression and a spark arrestor under state law. Helmets are required for operators and passengers. Motorised day use is ten dollars a person for residents and twelve otherwise, the annual DNR sticker is ten dollars, and a reservation is required for motorised visitors and carried on the person.
Maryland publishes no standing chain law. What it has is a declared emergency: a statewide snow emergency "restricts travel on all highways designated as a snow emergency route unless the vehicle is equipped with chains, snow tires or all season radials", and allows the State Police to tow anything left in the road or on the shoulder. Most vehicles already satisfy it. The towing is the part to take seriously.
Source 15
The canal, the mountain park and the water in between
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park runs 184.5 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland, and for a vehicle it is a chain of campgrounds rather than a drive. The towpath is for feet, bicycles and horses. What the park gives a driver is five drive-in campgrounds inside Maryland, at 20 dollars a site, booked through Recreation.gov, with no hookups anywhere and a trailer limit of 20 feet. Stay is capped at 14 days between 1 May and 1 October and 30 days in a calendar year. Eight people and two tents to a site.
The hiker-biker sites are free, first come and taken one night per site per trip, with a chemical toilet, a table, a fire pit and well water that is not treated and not for drinking without filtering, chemical treatment or boiling. Most sit one to five miles from parking, so for most of the canal they are not a vehicle option. The Paw Paw Tunnel at mile 155.2 runs 3,118 feet through the ridge and took 14 years to finish; you park at the campground of the same name and walk half a mile to it.
Catoctin Mountain Park holds 25 miles of hiking trail in the Blue Ridge and one firm rule for campers: the park prohibits bringing firewood in at all, and provides it at Owens Creek, Poplar Grove and Misty Mount instead. Further west, Youghiogheny River Lake spans the Mason-Dixon line for 16 miles with channels up to half a mile wide, and its Mill Run Recreation Area is the only Corps of Engineers campground inside Maryland. Jennings Randolph Lake spreads 4,500 acres of land and water across the state line, with the boat launch and overlook on the Maryland side and the campground in West Virginia.
On the Eastern Shore, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge keeps more than 20,000 acres open to public recreation and an approximately four-mile paved wildlife drive with turnouts, which the same page also calls a 3.6-mile drive. It is not backcountry, but it is the one place on the lower Shore where an agency invites you to drive slowly and stop where you like.
Source 10
Seasons, as the agencies write them
Maryland is small enough to cross in a day and large enough to hold two climates. NOAA records annual average precipitation varying "from about 40 inches in the Appalachian Mountain region to about 50 inches in the western and eastern areas", and the freezing-night count running from more than 100 nights a year in the northwest to fewer than 20 in the southeast. Temperatures have risen about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the start of the twentieth century.
The published season dates follow that split. Deep Creek Lake State Park runs its Meadow Mountain campground from 15 April to 15 December, and opens its snowmobile trail from 15 December to 15 March with a condition most states do not bother to state: four inches of snow cover is required. Snowmobiles on designated trails elsewhere run 15 December to 15 March as well, "except during deer firearms season". The canal drive-in stay limit is written around a 1 May to 1 October season. Assateague State Park camping runs the last week of April to the last weekend of October.
The one season that closes ground rather than facilities is the bird nesting closure at Assateague, from 15 March and possibly past 31 August. At the other end of the calendar, the Assateague backcountry sites close for firearm hunting in late October, mid and late November, early December and early January. Nothing here is a current condition report; these are the seasons as each agency describes them in general, and every one of these places posts its own live status.
Source 35
Passes and routes
-
Assateague over-sand vehicle zone
North Beach ranger station to the Virginia line
The only licensed beach driving in Maryland. A permit costs 110 dollars, or 200 for the Bullpen, runs a year from the month of purchase and is sold only through Recreation.gov. The Maryland zone is capped at 145 vehicles, after which access is one on for one off. Required kit is a non-plastic shovel with a six inch blade and 18 inch handle, a jack, a jack support of 12 by 12 inches, a gauge reading 15 pounds or less, and a ten foot strap rated to 6,000 pounds. Tires down to 15 to 20 pounds. Speed limit 25, dropping to 15 within 100 feet of anyone. No mileage for the zone is published in text. 5
- Vehicle
- Four-wheel or all-wheel drive, 26 feet long and eight feet wide at most, two axles, four wheels per axle. No rental cars
- Season
- Subject to partial or total closure for nesting from 15 March to 31 August or later
-
Huckleberry Rocks, Wolf Den Run State Park
12.5 open to motorised use, of which 6.5 take a full-size vehicle
Garrett County, with the park headquarters at Oakland
Maryland’s dedicated off-highway vehicle ground. The trail page calls it 1,700 acres of mixed forest and the park page calls the whole park 2,039 acres; both figures are the Department’s. The 6.5 miles open to full-size vehicles is the longest such figure the state publishes anywhere. Motorised day use is ten dollars a person for residents and twelve for visitors, on top of the ten dollar annual sticker, and motorised users must hold a reservation and carry proof of it. Non-motorised entry is three dollars a vehicle for residents and five otherwise, with no reservation needed. Alcohol is prohibited and gates, signs and barriers are to be obeyed. 17
- Vehicle
- DNR OHV sticker or MVA registration, noise suppression and a spark arrestor, helmets for everyone aboard
-
Green Ridge State Forest driving tour
44 on the tour sheet, approximately 45 on the visitor guide
A loop from and back to the forest headquarters at Flintstone
A self-guided tour by odometer across the largest contiguous block of public land in the state, taking about three hours. It runs out on MV Smith Road, joins US Route 40 Scenic, climbs to the Town Hill Vista and then leaves pavement onto Tower Road behind the car park, past a fire tower built in 1931 for spotting wildfire. From there it works through Mountain Road, Orleans Road, Banner’s Overlook, Green Ridge Road, the Log Roll Overlook, Jacob’s Road and Troutman Road before returning. The Department publishes no surface class or vehicle requirement for it. 22
- Season
- Forest hours are sunrise to sunset
-
East Shale Road, Meadow Mountain Trail
3,033 ft 4 of the 12-mile trail
The I-68 corridor to New Germany Road, Savage River State Forest
The clearest sentence in Maryland about where a motor vehicle may and may not go on a state forest trail. The whole trail is 12 miles, rocky and fluctuating in elevation, originally cut for fire control, and it follows the crest of Meadow Mountain with a view from the Meadow Mountain Overlook reached by a three-quarter mile spur. Only the four miles nearest the interstate, signed East Shale Road, are open to off-road vehicle use. 24
- Vehicle
- Off-road vehicles permitted on this section only; the other eight miles are closed to them except snowmobiles
-
Poplar Lick, Savage River State Forest
6
New Germany Road to the Savage River
A forested dirt road that is what remains of a Civilian Conservation Corps roadway built in 1934. The Department counts 13 stream crossings along it and only five bridges, which is the figure that decides whether it suits your vehicle and the week you are there. Designated primitive campsites sit along it, and the forest guide lists it as a hiking, biking and camping trail rather than a through road. 24
-
Margraff Plantation, Savage River State Forest
2,800 ft 7.5
A series of circuit gravel roads at around 2,800 feet, one of the four Savage River trails the Department lists as designated for off-road vehicle use, though it publishes no separate ORV mileage for them. Designated campsites occur along the trail and some sections are open to snowmobiles in season. The forest guide calls the gravel roads here less technical than its single track, which for a full-size vehicle is the point. 24
-
Backbone Mountain and Burkholder Road ORV Trail
2.7 as the ORV list gives it; the forest trails map gives 6.7 for the whole Backbone Mountain system
Potomac-Garrett State Forest, southwest Garrett County
The longest of the four designated off-road vehicle trails at Potomac-Garrett as the Department’s own list measures them. The trails map shows the wider Backbone Mountain system as open to snowmobiling, off-road vehicles, hiking, biking, cross country skiing and horseback riding together, which is the character of the place: one set of roads shared out by season rather than separate trails for each use. 15
- Vehicle
- Designated for off-road vehicle use. A plated vehicle needs no DNR sticker, but may use designated trails only
-
Wallman and Laurel Run ORV Trail
2.4 and 3.9 on the ORV list; 10.2 for the whole Wallman system on the trails map
Wallman Road and Laurel Run Road, Potomac-Garrett State Forest
Two designated segments in the Wallman and Laurel Run country of the southern state forest, blazed and listed by the Department alongside Snaggy Mountain at 3.2 miles and Piney Mountain at 1.7. The forest posts its own road and bridge closures on its page and has carried more than one at a time, so the miles open on any given week are a question for the forest office rather than for a map. 15
- Vehicle
- Designated for off-road vehicle use
-
Blackwater Wildlife DrivePaved
Approximately 4, given as 3.6 elsewhere on the same page
South of Cambridge, on the Dorchester County marsh
A paved refuge road through tidal marsh with turnouts for stopping, open to driving, cycling and walking. Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge keeps more than 20,000 acres open for public recreation and nearly 15,000 of them open to deer hunting. No fee or operating hours appear on the refuge activities page, so none is stated here. 34
-
The C&O Canal drive-in campgrounds
Strung along 184.5 miles of park from Georgetown to Cumberland
Georgetown to Cumberland along the Potomac
Antietam Creek, Fifteen Mile Creek, Marsden Tract, Paw Paw Tunnel and Spring Gap are the campgrounds a vehicle can reach, at 20 dollars a site booked through Recreation.gov, eight people and two tents to a site. Well water at the drive-in sites is treated with iodine, which matters if you have the allergy. The free hiker-biker sites are one night each and mostly one to five miles from parking. Paw Paw Tunnel, at mile 155.2, is 3,118 feet long and took 14 years to build. 10
- Vehicle
- Trailer length may not exceed 20 feet. No hookups anywhere in the park
- Season
- The 14-day stay limit is written for 1 May to 1 October
-
Historic National RoadPaved
Western Maryland, where the Green Ridge tour joins it as US Route 40 Scenic
One of the seven Maryland byways the State Highway Administration lists as carrying nationally significant themes, alongside the Star-Spangled Banner, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, Religious Freedom, Chesapeake Country, Charles Street and Catoctin Mountain routes. Maryland counts 18 designated byways over 2,487 miles in total. The Green Ridge driving tour picks up its western Maryland alignment as US Route 40 Scenic, which the forest calls the road that built the nation. 36
-
Snaggy Mountain and Piney Mountain, Potomac-Garrett
8.5 and 2.5 for the whole systems; 3.2 and 1.7 as the designated ORV list measures them
Snaggy Mountain Road and Piney Mountain Road, in the southern state forest
Two of the four green-blazed systems in the southern state forest. The Department’s trails map rates Snaggy Mountain easy to moderate and Piney Mountain moderate, and lists both as open to snowmobiling, off-road vehicles, hiking, biking, cross country skiing and horseback riding. Beside them on the same map sit trails closed to vehicles entirely, among them the Lostland hiking trail at 3.4 miles and the Watchable Wildlife trail at a fifth of a mile, so read the blaze rather than the map colour. 26
- Vehicle
- Shared by season with snowmobiles, horses, bicycles and skis
-
MD 51 to the Paw Paw Tunnel campgroundPaved
Cumberland to Paw Paw, West Virginia, along the Potomac
The drive that gets a vehicle nearest to the most striking piece of engineering on the canal. The campground sits directly off MD 51, on the left coming from Cumberland and the right coming from Paw Paw, and from there it is half a mile on foot to the tunnel mouth. The tunnel itself is 3,118 feet long, lined with an estimated six million bricks, sits at canal mile 155.2, and took 14 years to finish after work began in 1836. 11
-
Catoctin Mountain ParkPaved
Thurmont, at the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge
A Park Service unit in the Blue Ridge with 25 miles of hiking trail rated between easy and strenuous, and Chimney Rock as the vista most people come for. For a vehicle it is a paved park with campgrounds and cabins rather than a drive, and its one absolute rule is about what you bring: no firewood from outside, with wood provided at the camps instead. The State Highway Administration also lists a Catoctin Mountain byway among the seven Maryland routes carrying nationally significant themes. 13
-
Mill Run Recreation Area, Youghiogheny River Lake
The Maryland end of a reservoir that crosses into Pennsylvania
The only Corps of Engineers campground inside Maryland, on a lake that runs 16 miles along the Mason-Dixon line with channels up to half a mile wide. The Corps lists Mill Run alongside its Outflow, Somerfield North, Youghiogheny and US Route 40 areas on the same water. The Baltimore and Pittsburgh district sites both refuse a script, so no surface acreage, shoreline length or stay limit is stated here: only what the Corps Lakes Gateway publishes. 38
-
Jennings Randolph Lake, Maryland side
The North Branch of the Potomac, above Bloomington
A Corps reservoir spread over 4,500 acres of land and water on the Maryland and West Virginia line, with the split worth knowing before you plan a night: Maryland gets the boat launch and the overlook, while the Robert W. Craig campground, the Barnum whitewater area and the Howell Run launch and picnic area are all on the West Virginia bank. Drivers wanting to sleep on this water are crossing the river to do it. 39
-
Savage River Road to Big Run
New Germany Road to the mouth of the Savage River Reservoir
The way in to Big Run State Park, which sits at the mouth of the reservoir inside Savage River State Forest and gives easy access to the forest around it. The Bear Pen group campsite is off this road, by reservation. Primitive sites at Big Run start at ten dollars a night in the state reservation system. No gasoline motors are permitted on the reservoir, and the forest warns that the canyon it sits in can produce high winds. The park posts bridge and road closures on its own page. 32
Rules worth knowing
- A plated vehicle skips the sticker, but not the designated-trail rule
- The Department defines an off-road vehicle as a motorised vehicle designed for or capable of cross-country travel on land, water, snow, ice, marsh, swampland or other natural terrain, and lists automobiles and trucks among the types. Off-road vehicles must be registered annually with the Department and display a sticker, but licensed vehicles registered with the Motor Vehicle Administration are exempt from purchasing the off-road vehicle permit when using Department public lands. What binds everyone equally is the next rule: off-road vehicles are permitted on state forests or parks only on designated trails. Permits are sold at Deep Creek Lake, New Germany and Herrington Manor State Parks, Savage River and Potomac-Garrett State Forests, and by appointment at regional service centres. 16
- The Assateague sand permit is bought one way and inspected
- Permits cost 110 to 200 dollars depending on access, last a year from the month of purchase, and may only be bought online at Recreation.gov. Authorised park personnel may inspect vehicles for compliance. Carry a non-plastic shovel with at least a six inch square blade and an 18 inch handle, a jack able to lift one wheel clear, a jack support at least 12 by 12 inches, a gauge that reads 15 pounds or less and a tow line at least ten feet long rated to 6,000 pounds. Run 15 to 20 pounds of pressure. Rental cars are not permitted in the zone, and vehicles are capped at 26 feet long, eight feet wide, two axles and four wheels per axle. 5
- Overnight on the sand means a self-contained rig
- Only self-contained, hard-sided vehicles holding a valid Bullpen permit, fitted with an approved toilet and permanently installed waste storage tanks capable of holding two days of waste, may park overnight in the Bullpen camping area. The Bullpen permit is 200 dollars against 110 for standard over-sand access. Separately, over-sand users are not permitted to camp at the island’s backcountry sites at all: those need their own ten dollar seven-day permit, are issued first come with no reservations, and are reached on foot or by boat. 7
- State park camping is capped at 14 nights in 21 days
- Registered campers, their party and their camping units are limited to 14 cumulative nights in Maryland state park campgrounds during any 21-day period. From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day a two-night minimum applies and must be Thursday and Friday, Friday and Saturday, or Saturday and Sunday; holiday weekends require three nights including Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Reservations open 365 days ahead and new inventory is released at 9am each day the call centre is open. Base rates run from ten dollars for a primitive site at Big Run to 38.50 for an electric site at Assateague. 30
- State forest camping is a kiosk envelope, not a booking
- Green Ridge holds 100 primitive designated campsites spread through the forest, each with a picnic table and a fire ring, registered at forest headquarters before you occupy one and taken first come. Groups of 20 or more can reserve a group site by calling the forest. Backcountry backpack camping is permitted with a permit and fee. Savage River works the same way with 70 primitive sites first come, plus the Bear Pen group site by reservation, and its sites carry a table and a fire ring and nothing else, with no plumbing. Both forests are trash free: pack out what you pack in. 21
- Open fires run 4pm to midnight, and the Director can stop them
- Maryland’s open air burning rule covers activity in woodland and within 200 feet of woodland, or anywhere flammable material could carry fire into woodland. Burning happens between 4pm and midnight, except when the ground is covered with snow, when it may happen at any time provided everything else is met, and at least one responsible person must stay at the fire until the last spark is out. Permits come from the local Forest Service office. Under prolonged or unusual conditions the Director may declare a complete ban on all open air burning in woodland. Maryland publishes no numbered restriction stages; this is the mechanism. At Assateague, fires go in a park ring or a self-contained grill, with only wood bought within 50 miles or down and dead wood, and Catoctin Mountain Park bans bringing firewood in at all. 33
- There is no chain law, only a declared snow emergency
- A statewide snow emergency restricts travel on every highway designated a snow emergency route unless the vehicle has chains, snow tires or all season radials, which most vehicles already meet. The plan also lets the Maryland State Police immediately tow any vehicle left in the road or on the shoulder, and it bans all parking on designated snow emergency routes. It is declared by the State Police and the State Highway Administration county by county or statewide, so it is a condition to check before a winter drive rather than a standing requirement to build for. 37
- Winter motorised use waits on measured snow
- Snowmobiles run on Maryland’s designated trails from 15 December through 15 March, except during deer firearms season. Deep Creek Lake State Park adds the condition worth knowing: its snowmobile season runs the same dates but four inches of snow cover is required, and every snowmobile on the Deep Creek Lake trail must display a valid Maryland snowmobile permit decal, which costs ten dollars. The same forest roads carry off-road vehicles, horses, bicycles and skis at other times of year, which is why the season dates are written per use rather than per trail. 31
- What fits on an Assateague campsite
- A drive-in site takes six people or one immediate family, three tents, and two registered motor vehicles or one vehicle and a trailer. A walk-in site takes six people, three tents and one vehicle. Group sites run 7 to 25 people, book year round up to six months ahead and allow ten vehicles. The horse camp allows six horses and up to six vehicles or trailers. Quiet hours are 10pm to 6am, generators are banned during them and must not exceed 60 decibels at 50 feet at any time, and dogs stay on a lead no longer than six feet. 9
- Catoctin Mountain Park takes no firewood from outside
- The park prohibits bringing firewood in at all, and supplies it instead at Owens Creek Campground, Poplar Grove Youth Campground and Misty Mount Cabin Camp. That is stricter than the 50-mile rule at Assateague and stricter than the general state forest position, and it is the kind of rule that is enforced at the gate rather than argued afterwards. Owens Creek is tent camping in woodland; Misty Mount rents cabins. The park publishes no site count, fee, season or trailer length on its campgrounds page, so none is given here. 14
- Wolf Den Run wants a reservation carried on you
- Motorised visitors to Wolf Den Run must hold a reservation and carry proof of it on their person, not in the vehicle. Day use is ten dollars a person for Maryland residents and twelve for out of state, and all the other off-road vehicle requirements still apply on top: Motor Vehicle Administration registration and the ten dollar annual Department sticker. Non-motorised visitors pay three dollars a vehicle as residents and five otherwise, and need no reservation. A refund up to close of business the day before arrival costs a three dollar service charge; on the day of arrival there is none. 18
- The forests post their own closures, and they mean them
- Potomac-Garrett has carried simultaneous notices for a road closed at a numbered campsite and a trail bridge closed over a run, both for unsafe bridge conditions, alongside dated geotechnical work. Big Run State Park has published road closures for bridge construction lasting months. None of that is repeated here as a current condition, because these are live status pages rather than standing descriptions. The rule to take away is procedural: read the forest or park page in the week you travel, because western Maryland’s bridges are the thing that closes its roads. 25
- Wolf Den Run is a multi-use park, not an off-road park
- The Department calls Wolf Den Run a 2,039 acre multi-use park in Garrett County that offers hiking, biking, fishing, birdwatching, hunting and off-road vehicle riding together, protects sensitive wetland ecosystems and gives access to two cold water trout streams. That framing is the reason for the rules on the motorised side: obey every sign, gate and barrier, stay on marked trails, run at reasonable speeds under control, and keep a working noise suppressor and spark arrestor. The 6.5 miles open to full-size vehicles exist inside a park that is doing several other things at once. 19
- Savage River sells its permits from a box on a post
- Camping and other permits at Savage River State Forest come from a self-service kiosk rather than an office window, on approximately 55,185 acres in the northeastern quadrant of Garrett County. Fill the envelope, put the cash or cheque in, keep the perforated receipt for the dashboard. That is the working pattern across the western state forests, and it means the forest does not know you are coming and cannot tell you the road is out. Arrive with a second plan and enough fuel to use it. 23
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
