Best Cabin Camping near Westminster, MD

Olive Green cabin, owned/operated by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club is a two floor primitive cabin near Frederick, Maryland. It's a log cabin that was built around the mid-1860's. The last private owner, Olive Green lived in it until the 1980's (I think) when she was still living primitively without electricity or water. She grew her own food and had livestock on her property. The cabin itself is stocked with various cookware (including cast iron), bed frames, tables, chairs, books and games. We went in December after a storm and needed to shovel our way to the outhouse. Manual labor is not a bad thing! The opportunity to stay here and live primitively for a weekend was nice. The only downside is that the cabin is not effectively insulated, with numerous holes between the logging that lets a good amount of cold air in at night. There is also a wood burning stove on the first floor that's great for cooking on, but doesn't produce a lot of heat that needs to make its way to the sleeping quarters in the loft.

We tent camped there two years ago,  at one of their premium sights ( totally worth the extra $) I grew up camping and had never been at a campground that was this clean. I mean the bathrooms were pristine at all times. ( I actually felt bad when a moth flew in with me the one night because there weren't any bugs in there, EVER). They have 2 pools, a hot tub, $1.00 putt putt ( great coarse, with all proceeds going to a childrens hospital) splash pad, laundry,  game room, cafe, playgrounds....It is located fairly close to DC and the zoo. The only downside, is that it's near highways, so at times, you can hear traffic and you are forced to buy firewood from the campground and it could get pricey because there arent any local sellers like most places We had an amazing, relaxing stay and I would highly recommend staying there if you're visiting DC or just passing through.

Site Details: We stayed in the Dragonfly camping cottage (quick weekend trip without the husband, and I’m not quite up for towing and setting up the popup by myself with 3 kids!). It was a standard rustic-type state park cabin, with one double bed, one single twin bunk, and one regular set of bunk beds, so it sleeps 5-6 comfortably. There was also a sturdy dining room table with chairs and an oscillating fan inside. Electricity/lights and heat, but no AC. Very clean inside. The cabin also had a really nice front porch, picnic table, and fire ring, and was situated with a beautiful lake view. The area we were in contained both rustic cabins and yurts (which looked really neat).

Facilities/Overall Park: Multiple bath houses were scattered among various loops, and each one we visited was very old, dim and drab, but they were also spacious and reasonably clean. Showers all had old rust and water stains. However, it was nice that there were so many of them, because this is a very large state park with multiple camping loops. Most tent and basic RV sites were shaded and private, while the newer FHU sites were more open (but still nicely spaced). Hosts and rangers were nice, but not very helpful or proactive when they needed to correct a reservation mistake they made (but it worked out in the end). There is a beautiful lake with a really nice day area in the center of the park, with a great playground and concession stand. The lake is popular for fishing and swimming, although there is oddly no sand beach; swimmers just entered the water straight from the grass.

Surrounding Area/Attractions: Not much going on in the immediate vicinity, but Harrisburg, Amish country, and Hershey are all doable day trips from the park. We were here just for the Hershey RV show, and it was an easy 40-minute drive.

Overall, this was a very pretty park with site options for every type of camper, but certain elements are in need of updating. I don’t think I’d go out of my way to make this park a destination, but it’s a nice option as a base camp for visiting the RV show or other attractions (with a much cheaper price tag than the private CGs closer to the action).