Lost River state park has so much to offer:…read more Cranny Crow Overlook is 4 mile hike with the great views and worth the effort. Riding stables are great place to have a beginner get a first horseback riding experience. ($26/hour). Sulphuric spring is an interesting historic and wonder list place. The water spout is wonderful color due to water content. Cabins seems a great base for nearby fishing spots. Worth visiting for the reasons above.

Definitely a hidden gem!! Everyone here was so friendly and the cabin i rented was so nice…read more everything i could need (countless cooking utensils, plenty of towels, guides, and ice already in the trays) was provided. i cant tell you enough about the trails. my above all favorite is the white oak trail to cranny crow. cant beat the price, experience, or service. i'm returning in october.

Only place i really launch my boat it's good when river is at right level and the upkeep is done…read morewhich hasn't been very good. The places to tie off your boat are gone with nails sticking out everywhere and after water levels rise there's always thick mud on the concrete pad. If you have a good size boat the water around the ramp can get pretty shallow. Also, there's a lot of people who come there that can't read the rules and trash the place. When the upkeep is good and not muddy it's a good ramp.

Cute little grassy area noting the Civil War event of the Battle of Guard Hill. There are about 5…read morepicnic tables here and one grill post plus a porta pottie. This is sitting right at a boat ramp entering the Shenandoah River/North Fork. Basically, coming 66 West from N.VA, merging off at Front Royal exit, take a left on 522. Gas station and McDonald's on the right. Turn left onto Riverton Rd. (Just before the bridge). Turn right at the boat launch. Licensed fishing permitted.

It's a nice NOT crowded place to enjoy beautiful scenery. I had a celebration of life party for my…read moremom who loved the luray area. It was easy to reserve the pavilion and the cost was not to much.

What an incredibly beautiful gem! Revenue the ride out here is great! Beautiful lake surrounded by…read moremountains & trees. Nice pretty easy trail that loops around the lake (some parts are thin & steep, but made it through with the dog) . Absolutely loved this place on our vacation. Quite peaceful. I counted 6 shelters too so I imagine in spring /summer it gets used a lot. They have porta potties and a 2-stall bathroom for women & a bathroom for men too. Hand washing station outside. We came during the week of October 13th & the foliage was beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful landscapes and views of the valley and ridge lines. The hike is a short…read moredistance (0.8 miles) to the view point, but the change in elevation makes it a great workout.

- Update - *Several…read morepeople have advised me that the bird that tried to attack me is a Ruffled Grouse!* Apparently, they are well known in the area and confirmed to be aggressive and make strange noises! *Don't say you haven't been warned! :-) Saturday for the Memorial Weekend, I went to Wardensville WV to hike the Eagle Rock. AKA Tuscarora Trail. It's a simple 1 hour from my house. It's part of the Great North Mountain that acts as part of a natural border of WV and VA for some miles. The total miles of the Tuscarora Trail is 252 miles. It runs through PA/MD/WV and VA. It catches some of the Appalacian Trail at the Matthew's Arm Campground area. This trail was built as an alternative route for the Appalacian Trail due to the fear of the AT being shut down from development along the areas. The Tuscarora Trailhead for this location starts on the tippy top of The Great North Mtn on US48/VA55. At this location also you are in George Washington National Forest. You honestly can't miss it. 66w to 81s. Strasburg Exit to US48/VA55 follow for about 17 miles and you crest the mountain. There is a sign at the crest on the left near the wooods saying Tuscarora Trail. You can see it from the road. It slightly catches your eye but on the right side, you will see a big brown sign that says Entering Wardensville Cooperative Wildliffe Management Area. Park at the sign. Do not block the fire gates. I started out a little upset by the amount of hiker garbage on the o/s guardrail. Tons of Ice tea and water bottles littering the entire area. Not just a couple. It's like a ground of plastic bottles here. Also a bit worrisome was the constant gunshots. Over and Over until about the 1.5 mile stretch ends. I even saw Shot gun casings on the path, but I guess the sign did say Wildlife management Area. Geeze. The first mile was strenuous. There, I passed my first and only group of people I ever saw. They seemed to be teens chaperoned by 3 adults. They were catching their breath on the first mile. It was steep. Afterward, it leveled out and you could see you were walking the ridgeline of the mountain by looking o/s the trees to the mountain next door. Same height. From here it went from breathlessly uphill to muscle scortching downhill and leveling out.. over and over.. so overall there was give and take. A lot of the path became weedy and made my legs itchy. Some times it was almost knee length weeds. and the bugs. oh... the bugs. Don't stop for too long. I was breathing in a lot of bug protien on Saturday, let me tell you I had bugs for prelunch, lunch and snack! You could hear them around your head like a beehive. It was very much more wild than SNP. You could feel the wildness out here... I swear I am surprised I didn't see a bear. It was definately Bear Country! Speaking of this, let me also tell you what scared the living heck out of me up there. (Turns out after the scare I was laughing out loud all to myself but at the the time... I thought I was going to die) I heard some leaves russling... I slowed down and made a little noise...This...This... Turkey Bird Thing races out of the woods at full turkey bird speed and is coming right at me. It puffs up it's whole body and the tail spreads out like a Turkey but it's not big like a Turkey, more of a chicken size but fatter.... anyway this thing runs to me with his body puffed out and all I could do was walk backward and shout No over and over and over.. It's amazing I didn't fall down! That bird was litterally attacking me. I guess there was a nest along the patch in the woods and I was a bit close but OMG, If it were a bear, I'd be dead. That simple. Freaking Bird. OMG.... so it went off to the right and made this sound like a beaten dog.. wimpering..it was terrible. and When I started on my way, it followed me ! It was walking in the woods making that sickening noise for a good couple yards...That whole situation made me wonder about this dumb whistle I brought with me for safety. wow. wth is this whistle going to do! I forgot it was even in my hand! and that was a bird! lol. So later at a rock outcrop I almost sit on the one snake I saw the entire time. He was identical to the rock. Identical. I looked right at him and sat next to him. (?!?) The views were nice. A good change from SNP views. I'm glad I chose to hike this mountain this summer. There's so much more of it to hike and it even meets up with the Stairway to Heaven I did a couple weeks prior. I'm interested in exploring it a bit more. I may need to invest in a bigger whistle and perhaps a nice size knife as well. In the end, I was trying to outhike the storm on the way back to the car. I almost made it. But I was dripping wet once I turned the key! It was a great day and a great hike.

We went to Rockland Park on Father's Day to meet up with family and have a nice lunch. The kids…read morereally enjoyed the playground. The swings could have used some shade, but everything else was great. Parking was plentiful, and there were available restrooms in the parking lot. Check out this place.

This is a great park. They have two play areas, one for younger children while the other one is for…read morethe older children with three levels. They have recently added several music stations. The kids really enjoy it here. In addition to the play area, there are several trails that take you through wooded areas as well as a good size frisbee golf course. They have two large pavilion areas that can be reserved. There is only one downside to the park. That is that they only have porta-johns, so as you can imagine, these can be rather unpleasant in the summer time.

Super nice trails. Small park but beautiful trees. Get a trail map as some trails have signs from…read moreonly one direction.

Someone from my friends church recommended this place to them because they knew they loved to hike…read morewith me so my friend told me about it and we planned a trip to the area to see what it was like. Wow!!! How in the world did I not know about this park while being to almost every single place in the surrounding area? Crazy! Thank you to the person who told my friend about it and thank you to my friend for taking me here because I had a great time :D It's not a very big state park in regards to acreage but it's very dense and beautiful in every possible way. The trails are great and the hemlock trees are well worth every single step you will take to see them. They are huge and captivating! I am sure I will be back again because I had a great time and I truly enjoyed every single aspect of this place. Enjoy!

Maryland's New Germany State Park (aka the "Maryland Alps") is such a gem. Beautiful! Well…read moremaintained. Friendly and knowledgeable staff in the Lake House (where they also rent cross-country skis). Lots of fun events in winter. We came here to cross-country ski. The snow was very good on January 14, 2024, but it was very cold. Despite the cold, thanks to the sunshine, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Very nice trails where you ski along a stream. The sound of flowing water was really soothing. They have one dog friendly trail; gonna have to try it next time.

I loved going here as a kid, but now instead of swimming I like to walk the trails. It's great to…read morebring my dog so he can sniff to his heart's content. The park is really beautiful and quiet most of the time. It's really just a great place to relax in nature and take a moment.

More like 3.5 stars. Tubing on the river was fun and our family of 5 enjoyed it. Our kids are 5-9…read moreyears old so we had to keep an extra eye on them and help them a little. We used the strap that came with the cooler tube to strap my youngest child's tube to another one. One employee told us we could purchase another strap to tether them together but then the employee in the shop kind of scoffed and said it wouldn't necessary. It was definitely necessary! We had to paddle after all the kids cause their arms and legs are too short to even reach the water and paddle themselves. The employees really didn't do a whole lot of customer service so I'm not really sure the tip (which was paid in advance) was worth it. We even had to carry all our tubes all the way back up the hill after we finished. The river itself is mostly calm and it is a beautiful area. But there was quite a bit of algae/scum in the slower moving water which grossed out the kids lol. And the island where we stopped to each lunch had some trash on it. Overall tubing was a good experience but the $200+ price felt like a lot for what it was.

Our float was nice despite the river being low and getting stuck a few times. However, the guy…read moreworking the front desk (the owner? I don't know, I see what I assume to be the same guy mentioned in several other reviews) was *incredibly* rude. I can't understand this; I own a business and if I ever spoke to a client like that, they would never hire me again. So I guess he doesn't count on repeat business? The guy driving the shuttle was nice enough but I also don't understand this whole tip jar thing for boating companies. All the guys do is drive us a few minutes down the road and unload gear. Is that not their literal job? Why isn't the company paying them a living wage? I'd definitely scope out other places given the customer service at this place

Deep creek is my favorite lake, we spent a good time here for the 4th. The lake was clean and the…read morepeople watching was top tier. We will definitely be back while we live in Maryland.

Still a great campsite and State Park experience at Deep Creek. We were here this time in June, but…read moreit's been a long mild spring this year, so it's been cool and wet. There were clouds sitting on the lake for the few days we were here, very misty and Will-O-the-Wisp magical. We ended up traveling to some breweries, Swallow Falls (massive rapids with all the rain), did some local shopping and caught a movie. The camp sites weren't crowded at all and we had no problem making last minute reservations for a Sunday and Monday night.

While the park is not far from the highway, it doesn't feel that way at all. Going to the main…read moreparking lot requires a drive over some gravel roads and across a one-lane bridge past a vineyard, eventually leading to some facilities and a self-pay station. The park is riverside, but trails lead up a considerable grade, and I was huffing and puffing well before exhausting what was available. It was a quiet space with dynamic flora. The views aren't what you get on top of the mountain range, but it's a different kind of pleasure.

The kayaking experience--floating around the river--at Seven Bends State Park was really the…read morehighlight of my long weekend in Shenandoah Valley. We arrived at 8:30AM on Sunday of Labor Day weekend and were the first and only people there apart from the two rangers who helped us with instructions on how to reserve the kayaks. There were only 8 kayaks so come early or reserve them the day before. The kayak is self-serve so if there's no rangers when you arrive, just give the park a call and someone will assist you. Also, the rent price for the entire day, coming from DC, that is a steal. Admission to the park is $5 and you just need to put it in an envelope and a box. It's an honor system. The kayak will take you downstream to Lupton access. It's about 4 miles trip. Unfortunately, there's no shuttle back to the Hollingsworth access so you just have to walk the 3 miles back. Signal is spotty so you can't call Uber also there's not any. But it's a very enjoyable scenic route! Wear proper footwear to walk back. I highly recommend Seven Bends State Park for kayaking in Shenandoah Valley!