Does anyone have recommendations for riding in state parks within 1 hours drive of Frederick (city)? Places to avoid, places that are a ‘must see’, long endurance type distances - whatever you’ve got! If you know of specific places that are best to park please let me know that too.
I’m very interested in riding in Gambrills. I know you can but I never see riders there. Anyone have experience there?
I am familiar with Woodstock. Love that place!
I live near the Hereford area of the Gunpowder SP, and you can ride there. Check out the TROT website for more info regarding trail riding in MD. You can purchase maps for $1 from the MD DNR website, and they will note whether or not horses are allowed in the parks.
Feel free to PM me if you want to head up to my area to ride - it is about an hour from you, and I am very close to Hereford High School.
Union Mills and Morgan Run in Carroll County are nice, plus the Patuxent trails on the Howard/Montgomery border. There are also trails around the Liberty Reservoir, but I have never ridden there. There is a thread here about it, though.
I don’t think any of those are actual state parks, though. Union Mills is a Carroll County park, Morgan Run is a MD DNR “environmental area” and I’m not sure who is in charge of Patuxent. That one might possibly be a state park.
There are a ton of horse trails within an hour Frederick. I live near Gettysburg and most of the trails I’ve ridden on are in MD. Definitely check out the TROT website for the horse trail list. Is Gambrills sort of off of route 40? Or is that another park? Whichever park it is, I did hike some of it and parts were pretty rocky and there wasn’t much parking space for trailers.
Liberty Reservoir is very nice but the parking I’ve used isn’t great. No official horse trailer parking.
No one mentioned Little Bennett yet. That’s a regional park off of 270 a little below Frederick. They have a nice set of multi-use trails with tons of parking. I want to say like 15 miles of trails?
Sugarloaf is also below Frederick. I’ve never ridden there, but I did check out the parking and like a half mile of trails a few years ago (both looked fine).
Gettysburg is within an hour of you. All-weather trail footing on most of the trails, so a good “wet-weather” place to go. Of course there’s the draw of the history there. Trails are pretty simple, but maybe a bit scary to horses that aren’t used to traffic and strange looking fences and rocks/monuments. Parking is at McMillan Woods Campground. Parking on weekends during the busy season can get a bit hectic if you don’t get there early.
Certain sections of Michaux State Forest in PA might be within an hour of you. Parking and trail conditions depend on which section you go to. Trails are basically endless though.
Patuxent River State Park is off of 70 near Woodbine. I rode there once and really want to ride more there. Tons of space for parking.
I rode at Morgan Run once, but rode onto the trails from private porperty and never saw the parking set-up. Trails seemed nice.
Union Mills, or Hashawa as my group of people call it, is nice. I wouldn’t recommend taking an out of shape horse there. Lots of hills. There’s two parking areas, one off of Saw Mill Road, and the other off of John Owings Road, if I remember correctly. Most horse people seem to use the Saw Mill Road parking area.
There’s another trail system below Frederick that I can’t think of the name of. I walked some of it, and it seemed ok. I think it was only like 6 mies or so, so I never bothered to go down there when there was better options closer.
And adding one more. Catoctin Mountain State Park ncear Thurmont. The parking area is small, but I’ve never seen anyone parked in it, for people to be fighting over space. I haven’t ridden there, but it’s another trail I hiked part of. Typical mountain trail with some rocky spots, but nothing too bad. Idk how well-maintained the trails are, as I don’t think they get used too often, unless I’ve just always missed riders there in the past.
Can you tell I’ve done my research? 
I went on a massive trail search a few years ago, looking for new places to ride. My horse has been out of comission this past year, so I haven’t been able to check out all of the places I found.
Thanks! A few places in here I didn’t know about!
There is also Patapsco State Park. Good trailer parking at the McKeldin area off of Marriottsville Rd. The trails that start at McKeldin connect into something like 140 miles of marked, official trails, plus who knows how many ‘private’ side trails.
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Another is Woodstock off of 28. Nice trails, very nice ring with jumps, outdoor jump course and cross country course all open to the public. Very well maintained park. http://www.montgomeryparks.org/parks_facilities_directory/woodstockequestriansp.shtm
Also check out TROT (Trail Riders of Today) which is a MD based trail riding group. They have organized trail rides all over the state, and small sub groups of people who live near each other and get together for unorganized rides. They have a website and a facebook page.
Woodstock is super nice and horses only. Gambrills is very rocky I think. I only know it through mountain bikers - who wear full body armor because of all the rocks.
Patapsco, Little Bennett, Blockhouse Point/C&O Canal (my neck of the woods), and Gettysburg are all fun too.
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