Best Trails in Maryland

I have walked these trails for years...Great veiws, awesome for sunset photography...great for a day trip with the kids not a hard trail at all...

About halfway through this hike I was saying it should have been rated easy... by the end I was completely exhausted! I am training for a backpacking trip so I did this hike with a 25-30 pound backpack on which made the incline portions pretty difficult. It was great practice and a beautiful hike. Towards the end we came across a parking lot and thought we were at the end but it was not the west view parking lot and that made the last mile or so much harder. We also got off the trail a couple of times but always found our way back without too much trouble. We went on a beautiful spring day and there weren't too many people on the trail.

Solid trail. Well maintained. Took about 2 hours with frequent stops. I don't recommend going on a Sunday afternoon as it was very crowded. Too many families with little trail etiquette for my taste.

Gorgeous and mild, offering many opportunities to lengthen the hike with additional trails. I agree with other posters that way-marking could be better, but now that I've done it once I feel like I wouldn't get lost on a second go.

Great for biking

Beautiful trail with trees covering path.

We went out on this hike and the uphill on the first part was brutal. My five year old had to stop a number of times on the way up. Oldest son did better and the dog was fine. Make sure to bring lots of water on a hot day. If you go don't give up on the way the view was really beautiful. There were lots of rocks to sit and enjoy the view on and have a good little rest and a great place to sit and eat. I do have to say the sound of traffic was annoying. We were almost two miles in before you could hear the sounds of the highway any longer. Maybe the noise isn't so bad during the Summer when there are more leaves on the trees. All in all kids enjoyed it, after the long hike up.

I def was not on the Susquehanna Loop for the majority of my hike. I want to go back and try again, follow the red blazes for the Susquehanna Loop trail. I followed orange and blue, which were great trails as well, but not the trail I was looking for.

Really nice trail; went on a chilly April morning with our 3 and 5 year old. Little traffic, but did see a few bikers. Saw lots of turtles along the river. Noise from shooting range was a distraction for sure, but overall a great hike and doable with young kids who are enthusiastic about hiking.

Tasty

Absolutely fantastic especially if you go after a big rain to see Mother Nature at her best

Fun tunnel and then climb buzzards rock which for me was a challenge as I am not in good hiking condition! Great view of damn at top!

Good with kids

I'm new to hiking trails so I didn't venture too fair on this one. There are clearly marked trails and a few hills here and there so the description of moderate was actually. I enjoyed the scenic views and as it gets warmer I would definitely bring bug repellent because of many of the stagnant ponds in the trail.

Very nice trail. More bikers than hikers.

What I hiked looked nothing like these pictures (think much more boring). I followed the directions to get to the trail head, and I started walking down where the coords said it was, but it just dead ended at a little solar powered apparatus of some sort. So I walked back up to the road, and I walked up the "fire road" on the other side of the bridge. After walking along the creek for a while the path went pretty far up the hill to the left and then forked. I decided to go right, back down towards the water. I followed that for a while until it narrowed and I came across a Canadian Goose nesting which was pretty cool. Not even sure the trail continued at that point but I kept following the creek and after 2 miles eventually came out across from a rodeo. At that point I decided I'd been hiking for too far to be on the right path and something wasn't right, so I turned around and went back to my car. Besides the goose, I saw some cool wildflowers and a herd of deer drinking at the creek but I could easily have done essentially the same hike, without going so far away (hour and a half drive for me). Never did see any waterfalls. I guess if you're local to the area it's nice, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go back. All in all a nice basic Earth Day hike.

We started in the East View parking lot and went up the orange trail to see the peak of sugar loaf (steep, but quick) from there we made our way to the blue trail to go out to White Rocks look out (somehow got sidetracked off the blue trail for awhile...). Then we continued on the blue (then white) trail to get back to the parking lot. Nice and steady up and down, so never felt too strenuous. Arrived around 9:30 and wasn’t too crowded; by the time we were leaving (1:30) it was quite crowded. If we go again we might start down at the entrance gate in order to have more of an elevation climb.

A 1.5 mile hike if you park at the headquarters so it's nice with kids. It's supposed to be okay for dogs, however it's steep and rocky, so only for athletic dogs with tough paws.

Great hike ! Crowded by falls with been bikes and dogs but it is a Sunday and pretty spring day! Lots of other trails to explore and rocks to boulder around on.

trail in the battle ground is great. Except for a steep incline in the beginning part, it is really flat. Scenery is beautiful in april. However the map is not great. Do not attempt the second part of the loop (the section that goes parallel to i270 and goes underneath) That part has nothing to see and all you do is walk in a road. There is no pedestrian section so you share the road with cars for the most part. The dirt road with gravels makes a lot of dust any time a car passes by. The section that goes under i270 is not only bad but also dangerous. You are basically walking on the car road... This should have been listed as a 4 ish mile loop containing only the battleground part.

Absolutely love this trail! It is my sanity.

We loved the trail but it is not what i would concider a moderate hike. We were hoping for a bit of a challenge. It was a nice walk though!

Very easy hike with about a quarter of the loop paved.

Lovely trail for starting out. Beautiful waterfall but bring waterproof boots. The best view of the falls is after you cross.

Great spot to hike, bike, fish or boat. Payment for entry per vehicle ($5 for Carroll county resident). Would go back again.

Super crowded. Nice hike but way too many people there.

My dogs and I wanted to get out and the nice weather today and this park is pretty close to my house. It’s probably really beautiful in the summer time, so I suggest going then. Parking was great, but again, I can see it running out quickly on a really nice day. The only real negative thing I can say about this outing is that there was no where for me to throw away my dogs wastes. The paths are really easy to follow.

Ran the loop again. Missed one major turn. iPhone ran out near the end; Garmin says 1:00:23 time, 4.62 mi, 370C, 488 gain, 495 loss, and average HR 135 bpm. Recording posted.

The parks are getting super crowded on weekends now. Today, there was the boy scouts camping for the weekend in the Hilton Area. The trails were very crowded and the kids were loaded up with hiking gear. The Sawmill, Santee and Forest Glen trails are the rockiest in the whole park system. These trail will connect you from the Orange Grove area to the Hilton area. Many people will hike from the Hilton area all the way to the Cascade Falls, which is located near the Swinging Bridge. If you would like a special map I created 2 years ago email me, ( baltoken@yahoo.com )