Best Campgrounds near Great Cacapon, WV

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.

This is a great place with a lot to offer. We stayed in the campground with about 30 other families from our church. Everyone had a great time playing in the pond, kayaking, hiking around, and the giant bon fire put on by the owners was impressive. I would love to come back!

We are in Ash loop lot 22. Unfortunately yesterday a storm knocked out the power supply for the campground but otherwise great service

If you are looking for a place to stay so you can visit all the local sites. This is perfect. You can get to everything with ease.

Gorgeous spot just off the trail and 50 meters from the Potomac

We absolutely love camping here. There are numerous locations to choose from. I wouldn't recommend taking a camper larger than 26 ft in some of the locations.

General: Smallish (68 sites) campground near Jennings Randolph Lake, which is not directly accessible from the campground (you need to drive there). Roads and camper pads are all paved, and the sites are in two loops– the Front Loop (Sites 1-30) and the Back Loop (Sites 31-68). All sites have electric hookups, and have a picnic table, fire ring, and lantern ring. There are multiple hosts in each loop. 

Site Quality: All camper pads are paved, and most appeared to be level. They are of varying lengths with 53, 55, and 64-68 having the longest pads. The sites are generous in size and are spaced a reasonable distance apart; there are varying degrees of foliage to provide privacy between sites. You would be hard-pressed to pick a “bad” site; perhaps Site 31 would be the least desirable as it is near the intersection of the two loops. 

Bath/Shower: There is a bathhouse in each loop; although the building itself appeared somewhat dated, the toilets and sinks have been updated to be automatic. The showers looked a bit sketchy, but I didn’t use them. 

Activities/Amenities: There are several short-distance hiking trails; the trail heads are very well marked and, once on the trail, the blazes are very easy to spot. I hiked the Sunset Trail, and it was shorter than advertised but the bench swing at the overlook was a very nice surprise. There is also archery, basketball, fishing, and a boat launch for the small lake. There is a playground in each loop. There is also a camper store in the Front loop that sells ice, firewood, and basic sundries; it is run by volunteers, so the hours are different each day based on availability. Kalbaugh Pond is ADA-accessible for catch-and-release fishing. Shaw Beach has swimming access. There was movie night on Saturday night and a ranger talk on Saturday morning. 

We generally shy away from campgrounds on weekends, especially in the summer months but surprisingly, the campground was only about ¾ full on a Friday in June. The volunteers make this park shine. We were greeted by Alma, who was very welcoming and said all of the volunteers are proud of “their” little campground. Of note: We approached the campground from the southeast through the town of Keyser. DO NOT do this if you have a large RV. There are multiple signs saying that the road was not safe for large trucks; although our 18-foot camper van had no problems, the road was narrow, hilly, and winding.

My family and I have gone camping all over Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but had never visited Green Ridge before this weekend.  My son's and I decided to do some cold weather tent camping and to explore the Pawpaw tunnel while doing some hiking.  Greenridge Forest didn't disappoint.  I've added it onto my go to spots for Maryland but not one that I'll bring my wife to (true primitive camping).

The Pros:  

The forest is beautiful, the campsites are large and very spaced out, firewood is bountiful, the area feels very remote.  From our campsite, we could not see or hear the next closest campsite, in fact, I'm not exactly sure where it even was.  All of the sites are primitive sites with only a fire circle and a picknick table.  Many of the back sites require high clearance,  4 wheel drive vehicles to get to. (These can be a cons too). 

The Cons:

The area is beautiful,  but it is a working forest so don't expect a ton of old growth trees and some areas will have been freshly logged.   All of the campsites are primitive sites, and some require high clearance and 4 wheel drive in order to get to the site.    You can't make a reservation in advance, you have to take a chance that there will be a site available.   There are no latrines, bathrooms or showers anywhere to be found and the closest store is 30 minutes away. 

My boys and I all loved it there even though it was only 14 degrees at night.  We will definingly return.

Not bad for a long or short trip. Only problem is you need to book in person.

This was a great park! Very clean and quiet. The facilities were clean and felt safe. Some of the sites were a little close together but very large and well maintained

Sites are located less than a mile from the paved highway. We found 5 spots just off the road. All were easily accessible by cat or with a small teardrop trailer.

True boondocking, haul it in, pack it out. Evidence of a cat hole in the site we picked

Sites were quiet at night. Some traffic related to logging activity. Looks like a popular weekend camp spot for locals.

We camped during the week and had nobody else camping on weekdays.

Reservations are made through the National parks service "recreation.gov" website. Arrived for tent camping for 2 nights and found a pleasantly prepared raised bed area to pitch my tent on. My stay was quiet and the bathrooms were clean and well stocked. This is a great base camp for getting out to the Gettysburg National park and battlefield. town is less than 10 miles away that has a grocery store and restaurants. FREE split firewood. So quiet i swear i heard a squirrel burp.