The lat/long on The Dyrt were updated 5/5/2022 to reflect what the State Forest site says is the CORRECT way to get into this campground. 

Equestrian Camping

Campsites are primitive and a bathhouse is located in the center of the equestrian/special events camping loop. Equestrian Camping is roughly $30.00 per night per campsite. Make a reservation by calling 1-888-432-2267 (M-F 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) or online during the camping season (April through October).​ A horse is required to stay in this campground.​
Youth Group Camping

Youth group passes are honored. Youth group camping reservations can only be made by calling the Maryland Park Service Reservation Service at 1-888-432-2267 Make future reservations by calling 1-888-432-2267 or online. The Maryland Park Service reserves the right to restrict the maximum and minimum number of vehicles and individuals admitted under one youth group pass per visit.

    Check out a map of the youth group and special event loops.

Family Camping

Family camping is available from April to October. Walk-ins are not permitted in office; same day reservations are made by calling 1-888-432-2267 (M-F 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) or online (24/7). ​ 

    Check out a map of the Family Camping Area.​


Cedarville State Forest

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!

Mosquitos, Overgrown & Quiet

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. 

Cedarville State Forest (Tornado) 

If this campground is convenient - and given that it's open through October and &lt;60 minutes from DC it might well be - this campground is good to go. But without that convenience factor I would not rate this site as worth visiting.

  

The loop is very small, with all the sites pretty close together. The forest behind the site was sparse, enough so that it was hard to find fuel for the fire and we were basically part of the youth group activities happening. From 8am to 4pm I learned A LOT about what number to dial in case of emergency.  

  

The site itself was very small - difficult to get 2 cars and two tents in - and the fire ring was smaller as well. Though it was cleaner than the average state park site.  

  

We stayed in site 21, which was fine enough except for its proximity to the nearest pavilion and all the small children screaming "stop drop and roll" at the top of their lungs.

  

But at the end of the day it was $20 (with a $6 booking fee) and for better or worse we never interacted with a single park ranger or camp host. The upside is we could do what we wanted, the downside is there wasn't a sense of community, or regulation.  

  

I'll say I have never been to a site where the firewood is padlocked, and you have to call someone to come unlock it so you can buy firewood. In fact I'm downgrading the review from 3 stars to 2 as I write this - there really weren't many positives about this campground other than that camping is a terrific hobby.

A Crime of Opportunity

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&amp;T and had two bars pretty consistently. We would stay here again.

Nice campground 

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!

Pretty and relatively private sites

We picked up the camping registration outside the office at the entrance, no need to speak with anyone. Then we just drove down to our campsite in the family camping loop. We could hear and smell horses when we got to our campsite, but it didn't last forever. 

The site was mostly clean, had a few pieces of small trash scattered around when we arrived. The sites were decently spaced out from one another, it didn't feel like we were right on top of the people across and next to us. Our site was close to the restroom, it had a little path leading to the restroom, and it looked like there was little trail paths all around leading to the restrooms from the different parts of the loop. The path leading to the restroom from our site was gravel and easy to walk on. The restrooms were clean, but the floor was wet almost the entire time we were there (likely due to the showers).

If you need to buy wood it is $5 for 8 pieces and you call a number given to you in your registration packet. The ranger will then drive by and drop off the wood at your campsite. The inner ring of this loop has electricity, and the electric box was just on the far side of the picnic table in the corner.

Peaceful

Very convenient spot near the DC area. You wouldn’t know it, but there’s literally a massive junkyard and industrial areas about 2 miles from the park. I’d rate it a 3.5 if given the option

It’s a nice wooded area. Some of the campsites are close together, others are spaced better. All sites are covered in varying levels of gravel. The campground ring road is narrow, not much room to navigate when backing a camper into sites. The sites inside the loop have electric hookups.
I did not notice pull through sites, did not see a camp store. Firewood is self serve, honor system. 

As others noted, due to it’s proximity to Andrews AFB you are going to get lots of helicopters, jets and transport planes flying around day and into the night. 

When they are not buzzing around in flying contraptions it can be peaceful and quiet. 

Bathhouse is small but clean, there is hot water. No dishwashing station. Seemed like they had just added some new H2O pumps around the camping area. The pavilions have new picnic tables. 

Some good hiking trails in the park, you might come across people on horseback. I saw birds, frogs, deer, a rabbit and too many snakes while hiking. Looks like they have archery practice ranges, not sure how that works if people are hiking. I could hear a fair amount of gunfire while hiking. Guessing there’s a target practice area as it’s not hunting season. 

Did not see a camp host. The rangers cruise around a few times a day. 

Decent getaway, close to the big city

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.



Great Hiking but cold showers

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. 

Tickville   Otherwise nice

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).