Anyone stay in this cg or from here? How is the area, can I run a gen during the day for A/C? Any pros or cons would e appreciated, trying to find a reasonable stay in mid Aug to sightsee for about a week. Website says about 1 1/2 miles to a metro station, can we walk it? Last time i was in DC (mid 60's) I'm not sure a Sherman tank would have made us feel safe. Or any other CG's prefferably NFS, COE, NPS that are close enough to commute?
Thanks
Tom and Georgia
The campground is not in the best area...I would NOT walk to the Metro.
I wouldn't walk around the woods in the rest of the park...it's a favorite hangout of the local "alternate lifestylers" and they use the woods as a place to meet up.
All that said, it's the only CG inside the Beltway.
Me? I'd stay at the nearby Cherry Hill.
2008 42' Foretravel Nimbus CE
2007 Chevy Tahoe toad
Having also lived in Annapolis for a while, I figured I had to camp here at least once. This campground, while actually in Greenbelt Maryland is inside the Washington DC beltway. For anyone visiting our nations capitol this is the closest campground. But there are NO electric or water campsites.
If you do decide to use this campground as a base to visit Washington DC I would recommend driving to the nearest "Metro" (the DC subway system) and then riding the subway into the city. While the park website boast 1 1/2 mile to the nearest Metro, I think it is closer to 2. We did walk most of the trail to the city streets leading to the Metro Stop (College Park Station) and felt safe, it was still a long way away once we hit the street.
While the park web site boasts 174 camp sites, we found many are unusable for pop-up campers (or any other camper for that matter). Many of the sites are no more than a bump out in the pavement, parallel to road traffic. While this would be marginally acceptable on the right side of the road (other than traffic passing on your left all day) about half of these "bump out sites" are on the left side of the road, meaning your front door would open into traffic. A very poor design indeed. Other sites were too shallow for a pop-up and tow vehicle while others had the fire grill and table on the wrong side of the camper. I would guess that no more than 25% of the sites are acceptable for our use.
All sites are in a wonderful wooded setting but there is little cover between camp sites. On most sites, you will see a lot of your neighbors, a feeling I am more accustomed to in a private campground not a public park. While this is a wooded oasis surrounded by the city, you will hear traffic noise and trains from the campground, but this did not disturb our sleep.
So, all in all I stayed here once and was fairly happy, but for touring DC stay at Cherry Hill.
Tim Natasha's Camping Site
www.popupcamping.info
2005 Fleetwood Niagara
2004 Ford F-250 CC Turbo Diesel
We have stayed many times over the last 30 years. Drive to the metro parking lot and read the rules on their site first. You MUST have a prepaid card to get out of the parking lot. You can buy what you need at the Giant Supermarket near the metro OR at the metro. You can run the generator if it meets the requirements (sound level) of the NP. No industrial type (loud) generators. It IS a National Park and the NP Headquarters is at the entrance to the park.
If you are a senior you will pay about $7 a night if not, $14.
Cherry Hill, full hookups and $40-$50 or so per nite.
We live about 15 minutes away and use the park a lot when we don't feel like traveling a long way. I drive the MH over and on a Friday afternoon and the DW meets me there after work in the evening.
The park is a nice park. Full shade. It has a couple of dump stations and fresh water connnections are located around each loop. You can run the gen set. People stay here in tents, pop ups TT's and 5th wheels. While I can find sites in all of the loops that will accept my MH, the D loop is designated for for motorhomes. Sometimes if you are lucky you will find the rangers have cut trees, split the wood, and have filled the wood boxes on each loop. The Boy Scouts have dibs on loop A. There usually is a host staying on each loop. The Park Police have a substation at the entrance to the park.
While you can walk to the closest Metro, we never have had the need. Some think the area is the badlands, but I don't see it as a hot bed of crime. It's not like it was SE DC or Baltimore. Besides, I think its better that you drive over to the New Carrollton Metro site off of 95 and get on the Orange line. There is more parking and you won't have to make transfers between trains. Other then this one, there are no state or federal campgrounds in the area.
DC is fine for tourists as long as you stay out of SE. It's way better then it was in the 60's. They have run the ner-do-wells out and gentrified most of the city.
Dave & Mary
Isabel (a cuddly little Boston)
Buddy (The Beast) another Boston
2005 Itasca Suncruiser 35A
2003 Jeep Liberty
If it's listed in the Yellow Pages, the government shouldn't be messing around with it.
Well we're back, 4603 miles, tire, converter, 7-way plug, DVD/stereo failures, tank leak and a small fender bender later. Had to postpone trip for two weeks and do the planned loop in reverse so cancelled out on Cherry Hill and tried Greenbelt. Actually a lot better CG than I expected. Lots of large sites, shady and quiet except for a backround hum of taffic. Actually have to apologize to the people of DC for my worries, they were some of the nicest, most helpful people we met on our trip. They gave us a two page guide to whatever we could need when we checked in, where to find eveything from WM to hospitals, propane, Vets and lots more. Pocket maps of downtown,the Metro, and lots of other info.
We drove to the Metro station at the end of the Green line, about 1 1/2 miles and rode it to the Mall for $2.35, where we could walk to everything. Lots easier than when we took the Dodge to downtown Philadelphia, parking for 90 min. was $16. Plus one-way streets drive me nuts!
Anyway, I'd recommend Greenbelt Park, at least in the off season.
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& Mary 
