roadtripper5471912

If you don’t camp with dogs, this is a great place. Despite them having dog friendly loops, they aren’t really dog friendly, which is what is keeping us from giving them 5 out 5.

The sites are fairly level but very nicely maintained. They are a bit smaller than we’d like as we spend a fair amount of time outside. The picnic tables look new and the fire rings are big. They are also fairly shady and spread out. We definitely didn’t feel like we were on top of our neighbors. They highly encourage you to fill your water at the entrance where the dump station is but only encourage that when you’re blocking the road to fill up before you back in to your spot. The park was also full of poison ivy, oak, and sumac so we didn’t feel comfortable using many of the trails or walking the dogs around the loop.

As for the dog friendly part. While they have two dog friendly loops, like all Maryland State Parks, this one has felt the least dog friendly. There is only one dog wasted receptacle and it’s by the bathrooms so we didn’t find it for awhile. There are none on any of the trails and no waste baskets so that made walking not very fun. Also, dogs aren’t allowed ANYWHERE but the dog loops and trails. Not the welcome gate, day-use areas, etc. This made us feel super unwelcome especially because we couldn’t even walk the trail around the lake since dogs couldn’t even be on the sidewalk in the day use area. They couldn’t stress it enough - “not even in the parking lot”. We have a larger dog who loves to hike and swim so the fact that she couldn’t even do that here is the main reason we won’t return. I’m sure with a small dog it wouldn’t be as much of an issue but we wanted to make sure we let people know as we didn’t read anything about the pet situation prior to booking.

Being new to trailering and not knowing any better, we waited to the last minute to try to find a site over 4th of July. Luckily, there was a dog friendly, electric site available at Cowan’s Gap State Park. It’s only a 2 hour drive for us with a 3pm check-in/check-out time so we decided to try it. We really enjoyed our short stay. We enjoy hiking so being at a start park is great. There’s a 1.5 mile loop around the lake that’s very easy and a 1.7 mile hike near Loop A that’s pretty as it runs next to a creek but it’s definitely overgrown. The website and instructions for check-in were a little confusing so hopefully this will help newbies like us:

1) Loop B and some of Loop A are pet friendly. The website says sites 1-30 in Loop A but it’s more than that - they just haven’t updated their pet policy. They also don’t allow you to say your bringing a pet when you book online so be sure you are booking a pet friendly site (I called to double check).
2) check-in with the park office when you arrive. The signs when you pull in don’t really tell you where to go so the park office will help with a map.
3) there is no water at the sites. Only water pumps spread throughout. The streets are narrow so pulling off to the side is difficult. Our site was across from a pump so it was super easy to fill with two 25 ft hoses.
4) The sites are gravel and mostly level but they are kind of small. We have a 27 ft trailer and fit fine with our truck but would not have been able to have any tent campers with us. If that’s your plan, book a larger site.
5) if you have a generator, bring for back up. We lost power once but the neighboring site said it happened a few other times before we checked in. Mind you, it’s July so everyone is using their AC’s but it’s also not the time you want to not have power.
6) restrooms were relatively clean and there were enough spread throughout so we didn’t have to walk far.