Best Glamping near Dowell, MD

This review is specific to the non-electric tent sites.

From a services available view, their staff is visible and around to help.  Bathrooms, "Comfort Stations", could use some cleaning more frequently but I've seen a lot worse.  Big trash bin near the comfort stations, convenient.   Definitely a well stocked camp store, its obvious they cater to beginner and family camping.  You are NOT permitted to use deadfall at this park, must bring locally purchased USDA wood yourself or buy from camp store.

There are comfort stations and trash bins close to every non-electric camp site, an easy sub-200 yard walk for me, but that fact is also where my disappointment starts.  The non-electric camp sites in some cases, appear to share a single area, fire pits 10 feet apart from each other, one flat area, barely a full length truck can fit in the parking available at each site they are so close to the road.  If you whisper,  your neighbors will easily hear close.   A big part of camping for me is the peace and quiet of nature.  THIS IS NOT THAT CAMPSITE.  It is extremely compact and close to each other.  Snoring of your neighbor is definitely an issue no matter which site you choose, except for maybe 138 as was said in another review.

The gravel road into the campsites,  is a RESIDENTIAL road.  Yes, there are houses at the end of the road these campsites are ON.  Not off of, on.  Now mostly that wasn't a big deal, cars moving through during the day, early evening.  But that one guy that sat with his high beams on pointed directly into my tent late night for a solid minute or two before loudly accelerating through was a bit irritating. 

This was a weeknight trip, there was only one other camper in this small campground with me so all in all, not a terrible trip but definitely not worth the cost and will not be visiting here again.

This campground is about 25 sites. Only 5 sites have electric (2, 5, 18, 24, 25)but all 25 sites have water hookup. Weekends are some what noisy because of the games across the street in the park. This is not a gated campground so anyone can come through and have a tour. Park Police patrol the campground 2 times a day. Also the bathrooms are clean, their are 2 stalls and 1 shower, cleaned daily by park rangers. Raccoons run wild at night flipping trash can lids on your campsite hunting for food. Use repel spray to keep the raccoons off your site. Site 24 and 25 are very close together but the other sites are at a distance however, 6 of the 25 sites are unleveled so tent camping is probably the only option. This is not big rig friendly but there are pull through sites but the roads are very narrow and there is only 1 way in and 1 way out (same entrance) there is a dump station at the beginning of the campground with access to water as well. Free of charge. This is a quiet campground and it's cheap for maryland residents and about $20 for non-resident. There is no registration on site it's online only. www.pgparksdirect.com

We were here for just one night during September. Our first time camping in the area and since COVID. Check in process was relatively simple, just pull up and pop out of your car to check in, with mask of course. We got a quick run down, some wood and a brochure with maps and area info. We were at site 133, non electric non water. I feel like the spots at the end of each loop might have slightly more privacy, but our site was fine. It included a picnic table and probably the best fire pit with grill that I've had in a while. It rained the night before we came, and the night we were there so the ground was pretty wet. Bathrooms had a sign for taking care with COVID precautions, and to wear your mask. Bathrooms were ok, but floors were a mess from muddy feet. Not much to be done about that. There were showers, and a dishwashing sink, plus laundry available. It's nice to know we've got a close spot to escape to if we don't have time to go far. This is a pet friendly campground. There's a lot to do out at the whole park, and its worth exploring (we just didn't have time). I'm sure its so pretty out near the water.

We stayed on the big loop on site 48. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything on ReserveAmerica specifying the water situation, so when we arrived we found that we didn’t have water hook up. I’m attaching a photo of the color map I got at checkout which specifies which sites have water.

Bath house was cleaned regularly and was generally very clean (except footprints from people who came in while the floor was wet from mopping). Shower stalls and bathroom stalls were very small but water was hot. Laundry facility in the bath house, $2 per load, quarters. The camp store had most everything you could need and was open 8-8. Staff was all super friendly. They had numerous activities going on for kids.

Definitely be prepared for bugs and ticks.

Sites were shaded well but many didn’t have a lot of privacy from neighbors. Definitely a tad smaller than the photos online show. Our site was level.

The raccoons and squirrels have no fear and will chew through plastic containers to get your food.

Site Details: We stayed on site#19 in Loop B(the electric loop). Our site was large, very level, and surrounded by pine and hardwood trees. All sites in this loop were fairly spread out, with ample tree separation between each one. I don’t think there was a bad site in the loop. 

Facilities/Overall Park: The loop had a wonderful, heated bath house which was centrally located and a very short walk from our site. It looked to be recently built(or renovated), and was impeccably clean with very nice-looking showers(which we didn’t use this time). However, there were only 3 stalls and 2 showers, so I imagine the lines could get pretty long during peak season. There was also a nice outdoor dishwashing sink on the exterior of the bath house. 

The park itself is rather small, but very pretty and(mostly) peaceful. It’s set on the Choptank River and Watts Creek, with a great amphitheatre and walking trails with beautiful water views. There is also a nature center(which was closed for the season), as well as several pavilions and playgrounds scattered throughout the park. The pavilions were in definite need of a facelift, and the playgrounds were older but decent. 

While the park was very quiet and enjoyable during the day, unfortunately I couldn’t say the same for nighttime and early morning. The first night, we were awoken several times by the very loud firehouse siren from the neighboring town of Denton. It sounded like one of those older air raid-type sirens, with a really loud, jarring windup. My husband looked it up the next day, and discovered that Denton does in fact use that old fashioned alarm system to signal any type of emergency. In addition, we heard very loud gunshots from nearby goose hunters right at sunrise. So, you may luck out if you camp outside of hunting season and there are no overnight emergencies during your stay.:) 

Martinak is a sister park to the larger Tuckahoe State Park(about 10-15 minutes down the road), and the two parks share and co-host many events between both facilities, mostly during peak season. Upon check-in, the(extremely friendly) rangers handed us a map and calendar of events for both parks. 

Surrounding Area/Attractions: The small town of Denton is about 5 minutes outside the park, with a Walmart, a few chain and standalone restaurants, plenty of gas stations, and most modern conveniences. St. Michael’s, a very quaint and popular tourist destination, is about 45 minutes away. 

Overall, while this a very pretty park with nicely wooded and spaced-out sites, we prefer the neighboring Tuckahoe SP for its slightly better trails, nicer day-use area with newer playground, and(most importantly) lack of midnight sirens.

This is a stunning state park with a gorgeous campground. The whole place seems very well taken care of, with a camp store, visitor center, and discovery/education center for kids.

We are on our way up from South Carolina, so we only stayed a night, but it was wonderful nonetheless. Everything was closed when we arrived, so it was a welcome surprise to have firewood available for sale on an honor system. The roads to the campsites were paved, and we had an easy time finding ours thanks to a prominent sign.

We booked a pull through site with full hook ups, a faux wood picnic table (no splinters,) and fire pit. The site was pretty big, laid with gravel and pebbles, and edged with wooden curbs. We didn’t have any trouble leveling out and hooking up, the connections were in a great spot for our trailer and others on the grounds. The site is in a thicker forest, so bring bug spray, and I found setting out a couple Thermacell mosquito repellants was effective (very little wind that day.) The site had a lot of privacy and the ones around us were spread out nicely as well, some even had two levels with stairs put in. Easily one of the nicest sites we have ever stayed in. The campground has a ravine behind it, something to be cautious about with pets/kids.

The park is on a cliff overlooking the Potomac River, and the Big Meadow trail brings you too Fossil Beach. It’s a sandy beach with lots of rocks and clay, I’m sure I would have found more fossils had I brought a little sifter with me.

We loved it here, it was a beautiful and private campsite with a great park to explore.

This campground has 5-star service, which is good to know before you pay the premium price for the sites which really are standard 4-star campsites. Our mode of camping: a campervan. Reason for staying: to be stationary for a few days.

[Internet. Verizon via iPhone 12: 9 mbps down and 1.4 mbps up with 49 ms ping.]

We had a few interactions with the rangers and staff that really impressed us.

(1) The first night there we went to take a shower at Comfort Station 1 and there was a snake in a shower that had snuck in. We showered at Comfort Station 2 on the other side of the campground. The next morning we reported to the camp store about the snake and that we hadn't gone back to check if it was still there. Not even 5 minutes later, two park rangers pull up to the bathroom to check out the bathroom. The snake had left. I was impressed with their response time.

(2) I had a package mailed to the campground and asked about it at the camp store. They said the ranger receives packages and that she'd call to check if any packages had arrived. I kid you not, maybe ten minutes later a ranger drives up to our campsite and delivers the package. 

(3) The Comfort Stations are so clean. They might have some of the cleanest bathrooms I've come across. Comfort Station 1 was within visual distance of our campsite. I swear that one person spent almost two hours cleaning that one building. This Comfort Station has an extra restroom that's handicap accessible too. The laundry room was so clean. As I do in all laundromats, I swipe the folding table with my finger to see if it needs dusting. This table did not need dusting. The women's restroom (and handicap bathroom) were so clean. The toilets, showers, sinks—everything. 

Other pros include: 

There's two laundry facilities. The washer and dryer each cost $2. (I highly recommend drying on medium since the dryer runs forever.) You can exchange for quarters at the camp store. The camp store sells firewood. Oh, the camp store itself is a perk. During our stay it was open 8am to 8pm. They sell ice cream! It was hot during our stay, so I bought some ice cream sandwiches.

My cons:

My first con is that the fresh water fill stations aren't marked on their campground map. They actually have two fill stations on either side of the camp store. Ask the camp store where they are.

My big con largely concerns "the nature" which I won't hold against the campground. Since it's summer, the spiders were out in full force.  Comfort Station 1 didn't show signs of any spiders who set up home (because they clean like crazy and they're amazing). However, outside is a whole different story. There was a fat, monstrous spider with a big web right above the dish washing station. It nearly gave me a heart attack (and I'm 36). I brought my bug spray over and doused the hell out of it and the underside of the roofing above the sink so I could wash dishes. That first night with the snake in the bathroom—there was also a sand dollar sized spider running across the floor. It clearly had ALSO snuck in. Our campsite had a fair amount of spiders running around on the ground. I highly recommend NOT wearing sandals during the warm season. At night during our first campfire while it was dark, a spider slunk down from a tree just above our picnic table. WHOLE LOTS OF NOPE ON THAT. We turned our outdoor side lights on to keep the spiders up in the damn trees. Thankfully this side was facing the woods so our lights weren't in anyone's eyes. I dread being one of "those" campers.