Best Campgrounds near Ellicott City, MD

Had to overcome a minor bit of confusion at checkin but the staff resolved it reasonably quickly. I have a non-traditional RV, which I informed the campground of when I made the reservation, but the gate security wasn’t aware. A manager came by the following day to explain the campgrounds standards, allowed me to stay for the length of my reservation, but ensured I understood I couldn’t stay again with this camper. No issues. It’s private property and they can certainly decide who can rent their spots.

The campground itself is in excellent condition. While it is primarily occupied by seasonal units, they don’t seem to be victim of neglect in the way they so often are.

The restrooms were clean and modern. The laundry facility was clean, all machines operational.

The camp store has minimal stock, but does have the things you might need in a pinch, and there are full service grocery stores close enough that it shouldn’t be a problem.

The staff that I interacted with were excellent.

The park is expensive (based solely on my experience). It’s about 25 miles from the Gettysburg battlefield. That may account for the premium prices.

My family and I stayed at this campground in late April. The staff was great. We had a site right on next to the trail going to Stangler Farm.  AT&T cell reception at our site was hit or miss , but good in the rest of the campground. The camp store has everything that any camper could need, and the game room is really nice. The whole campground was clean and well kept. Ths campground is approximately a 3 minute drive from everything in the town of Gettysburg. The battefields are very close as well. Chubbys Pizza is about 5 minutes down the road and provides fast service as well as great food. We will definitely visit this campground again.

We set up camp at Harpers Ferry/Civil War Battlefields KOA Holiday as our launchpad to visit the historic sites in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland. 

We paid$114/night(average per night, including fees and taxes) for Site# 94. A bit pricey considering a lack of elbow room, but it’s a great location and everything is well-kept. 

THINGS I LIKED: 

• Location, Location, Location! Close proximity to plenty of historic and tourist places to visit. The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Visitor Center is literally next door. Harpers Ferry Lower Town and Bolivar Heights are a few minutes by car(or shuttle from the Visitor Center). Frederick and Antietam are each barely 30-minutes by car. Gettysburg, Baltimore, and DC are about an hour’s drive. 

• Clean and level gravel site with well-maintained utility hook-ups. 

• Great campground store filled with food, drinks, camp supplies, souvenirs, and essentials you may need while away from home. 

• Friendly staff in the office& store. 

• The whole park is quiet and well-maintained. 

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH: 

• Heads up, big rig owners! Our Pull-thru FHU Patio site(#199) had a serious slope. It was impossible to level my 45’ motorhome without elevating the front wheels dangerously in the air. The nice staff kindly moved us to a FHU site without the patio and furniture. And refunded the difference in price for the lesser site. Thanks for providing the move but ‘premium’ sites should be somewhat level, am I right? 

• Get cozy, the sites are quite small and tightly packed together. 

• A $3 per night“Pet Fee” for our small, mostly-indoor dog felt a bit like nickel-and-diming. I realize it only amounted to an extra$12, but he didn’t need any extra gravel. 

WOULD WE COME BACK? 

• Absolutely, this is a nice campground with lots of great places nearby including Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Frederick, Washington DC, Baltimore, and more.

We have found municipal campgrounds in Northern Virginia are a bit spendy for being government sponsored.  Not as bad as South Carolina, but way more than Florida.  Fine.  Comes with the territory.  But Bull Run manages to goose you even more.  There are occupancy AND transaction fees that really add up if you're only there a few nights.  But the real kicker is a 2-night minimum stay.  Even mid-week.  In APRIL for gosh sakes!

While we were here, there was a fairly heavy day of rain.  Couple inches, I suppose, but nothing Biblical.  The mouths of the metal culverts in our loop were bent downward from campers driving over them, which obstructed the flow.  Result was lots of standing water at our campsite.

We're done with NOVA Parks campgrounds.  Better cost options exist with Fairfax County Parks.