Best Equestrian Camping near Scotland, MD

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.

Saw a snake, alligator snapping turtle, and rabbits, before we even reached the gates. Moderate privacy and space, especially considering how close it is to DC. There are some abandon camp loops around the open campground which makes for some cool walks with your dog. Very pretty area with lots of trails and overgrown roads to walk. Equestrian trails go deep into the woods if you want a longer trail. Bathrooms don’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is very nice. Clean, hot water, and good water pressure. The have a new dump station, but the hose has an anti-freeze up in the air with a pull cord valve. This means every time you pull to turn the water on, you get a shower. It was hot, so it was OK. Hahaha. They sell firewood, but they were huge pieces and getting them to start burning was tough. LOTS and LOTS of ticks. I got one, but my wife and dog got about a dozen each. Just bring tweezers. Each site had picnic table, fire ring, and pretty level parking spot.

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!

Our RV Garmin GPS and Waze brought us in on the back roads at Accomac versus keeping us on US-13. If the Temperanceville address doesn’t work, replace Temperanceville with Sanford, VA, per their website. Roads were OK but a little narrow. US-13 to Saxis Rd/695 is a much easier and direct route to the CG. Once we arrived, check-in was easy. We had requested site 50, back-in with FHUs but were told since the park was fairly empty, we could take a golf cart and go choose a site. We declined as 50 was in the pines, but still had water view. The seasonal weekenders had gone home, and we preferred the larger, more private area behind the site to walk our dogs. We were guided to Site 50, which was an easy back-in with the utilities nicely placed. Tall Pines is a large campground with a lot of nice amenities. One of the really nice points about this CG is that they cater to short termers as well as seasonal. There are a wide variety of sites to choose from and other than some of the seasonal sites, they are not stacked on top of each other. Our site was back by the cabins, which were all in excellent shape. Tall Pines hosts activities for the northern part of the Eastern Shore plus there are 3 pools and a horse riding area. Satellite could be iffy for sites near 50 plus other areas due to the trees. There are very nice water view sites and some of the premium sites have cable. We got two bars on both AT&T and Verizon. Their free WiFi worked about average for this sized CG. You have to drive 10 or so minutes to find amenities. Along with a very friendly and helpful staff, the CG also had propane and a nice stack of firewood for$5. The laundry room was very clean and fairly priced. Tall Pines has a first-rate onsite store. The store has t-shirts, bread, milk, etc. but also a wide selection of RV accessories to include faucets& water pumps at fairly reasonable prices. This is a great place to stay and check out Chincoteague and Assateague Islands, without having to stay in the higher priced tourist area.

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).

If this campground is convenient - and given that it's open through October and <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.

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