Best Campgrounds near Oakland, MD

  This is a great state park! We really enjoyed the falls & were able to take a couple of hikes. Wonderful views from the lodge & one of Pendleton Falls from the road. The Falls of Elakala is a short walk from the lodge. Lindy Point overlook was a.3M one way for a fabulous view. 

There's a nature center by a small lake. You can fish there & they have kayaks to rent. Skiing must be very popular in the winter. 

  Besides the lodge There's 39 cabins, which looked nice. You have a huge yard area with the ones I saw.

  Now for the campground...hmmm. There's 64 campsites, I believe they are all electric. There's water at the bathhouse which is inconvenient. You can't drive close to the bathhouse, There's pedestrian paths.

 The handicapped sites are in the first loop by the bathroom.

 There's a dump that's in the middle of the first loop. You have to go the wrong way on a one way road to dump. Campsite 40 I would avoid since it's close to the dump.

The bath houses are MUCH cleaner than Pipestem & checked often. There's more of a staff presence here also. More driving through the campground at regular intervals. 

The office has some basics.

  This is a very oddly laid out campground. I'm including a Pic of the campground map. I made some notations. We were in the 2nd loop on site 27. Since it's been raining for a week it was very muddy. We fit in the site, barely. We have a 16' BTW.

 Site 25 next to it first look better, but I noticed something odd. You back in & your door is facing the correct way, but your picnic table & fireplace are on the wrong side! A lot of sites on this loops are like that. 25 would make a lovely tent site.

The pull throughs are too close to backin sites, so if you come in to pull through, you may have to ask your neighbor to move his vehicle. Some places have pull through sites with connecting driveways.

 There's a trail that literally goes through someone's site.

 Choose your site wisely!

There are no amenities here besides a picnic table and a fire ring, but the sites are so spread out that it’s basically like dispersed camping but on a paved road. Which is like the magic ticket to enjoyable camping!

I reserved site 125 which was right across from the creek. The creek had some pools deep enough to sit in and get fairly wet.

It was very quiet other than fireworks a couple times. We saw no wildlife until we left the site in the morning and saw some deer on the road. Though we did have a spectacular firefly display at night.

A lot of litter left behind by previous campers. No cell service. Beautiful forest. Be prepared for mosquitoes and gnats.

I love Gandy Creek! I have camped at 4 different sites and have explored and reconned almost all of them! Some you walk-in a short distance but are rewarded with amazing sites on the creek, secluded and wooded. Other places you can camp in your vehicle or park at the site. My favorite areas are on the creek. Lots of privacy, every site is unique and special in it's own way. There's minimal cell reception and by that I mean you'll be walking along and all the sudden your phone will start dinging because you hit a pocket where you get one bar of reception and the text messages pour in lol! Used to be a gravel packed road but they started some paving last year. I haven't been there in 10 months or so but plan to later this summer.

There are lots of trails, LOTS, all around that area. There's a really cool rock formation where the creek goes under the Whitmer Road Bridge (I forget the name of it). There is a pit toilet on either end of the camping area but you're not really close to one. I totally recommend being self-contained. Dispose of your waste properly, please. It's one of my favorite areas and even when it's hot it's a great place to camp because the elevation and the creek.