Greenbrier State Park

Well maintained and heavily used state park.

We stayed 3 nights while visiting family in the area so most of our time spent in the campground was early morning and late evening. Cedar loop of the campground was nearly full over the weekend but the camp was quiet and peaceful. Other loops had more availability and were not a crowded. Cedar Loop where we were is the only pet friendly loop and also has 30 amp hookups. Water is available at spigots in the park and there is a dump station at the entrance of the campground.

Camping sites were small. The camping "pad" was tiny crushes gravel and most of these areas were level. Some sites had quite an incline to back up into the camping "pad." Sites have a fire ring and picnic table. The bath house was clean and maintained. The camp host cleaning fire pit between campers. He also raked the crushed gravel making the site well cared for.

A few things to note:
*The park has a gate at the entrance which is locked at night. You need to call ahead if you will be arriving late for the code. The lock is difficult to see at night, it is a combination code with the numbers imprinted into the silver metal. When hit with light from a flashlight the whole thing reflects light back at you making it difficult to see the numbers. This gate was being locked about 10 pm while we were there.
* There is a second gate at the entrance of the campground operated by a keypad. The campground office closes at "dusk." If you arriving after (or near) "dusk" and have reservations call ahead to get the code.
* There is a swim beach and large picnic area which are heavily used by local folks on weekends. The park did close the park to day use once the parking lots were full. They blocked off the left hand tuning lanes on Rt. 40 into the park. As campers they allowed us in, but we had to pass the park and turn around to make a right hand turn into the park. Not a big deal, but would have been a pain if we happened to be towing.
* Finally, we made online reservations ahead of time. Our paperwork said we were in site 15. Every loop has a site 15 but the registration paperwork didn't indicate which loop we were in. We arrived after the office was closed. We found our site by finding the only pet friendly loop and were thankful there were signs about that.

Overall, this is a great well maintained park. The registration process and getting in at night could be improved. An emergency first responder would have difficulty having access to the park at night.

Park is located near an Appalachian Trail parking/trailhead.

Would stay here again.

sites are kinda level and not too close together; lots of shade; bathrooms are clean and my one concern would be the showers as there were only two for the whole loop and during busy times I imagine that wouldn't cut it; but all-in-all a very nice park with trails and swimming and friendly helpful staff -- our $21 rate includes a senior discount and was a site with 30AMP service

This park has sites with electrical hook up but only on the Cedar loop. There is a large man made lake that’s awesome for swimming and fishing. Unfortunately as of summer 2018 the dam that holds back the lake is under repairs and swimming will not be allowed this summer.

We stayed in the Cedar Loop, site #7. Site was partially shaded, more private than many others in the loop, but still not very secluded. Nice and level. Hardly any space between sites. Definitely one of the more tightly-packed MD state park CGs. Luckily, we were there during the week, so it was not crowded at all, and reasonably quiet. Had we been there on a weekend, I can only imagine that the crowds and noise would have driven me crazy.

Bath house was fine; very average as far as bugs and cleanliness. Only 2 or 3 shower stalls, IIRC; never a wait while we were there, but I imagine the lines are long on weekends. There was a relatively easy hiking trail from the campground down around the lake, with some nice, quiet little spots for fishing. To get to the sandy beach area of the lake, we drove, since we had 3 kids and a ton of crap to transport. The lake area is very nice, with tons of picnic spots in the shade. However, every single picnic table was in use, and the beach was pretty crowded, and we were there on a Wednesday! I can only imagine how packed it would be on a weekend. Despite the moderate crowds, we really enjoyed ourselves, and I think I liked it even better than the lake area at Cunningham Falls.

We didn’t venture outside the park, but there seems to be plenty to do in the area. Greenbrier is part of South Mountain Recreation Area, which includes a few other state forests, historic battlefield area, and even parts of the Appalachian Trail. Hagerstown and Frederick are also a short drive away, and both have everything you could want as far as restaurants, shopping, etc. are concerned.

Overall, I liked the park just fine, but it didn’t wow me. Again, the campsites were way too close together for my taste. The lake area was really nice, and I could see myself taking a day trip up for that, but not on a weekend. This is definitely one of the more popular state parks, and I would hate to drive over an hour to risk being turned away at the gate (beach frequently fills to capacity during the summer).

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.

We used the senior golden age pass Sun - Thurs to get 1/2 price camping late Sept 2019. We booked Cedar electric loop site 18 (now #81) with water very close by. Very private, roomy and level. When backed in, there is no one to your left and only site 83 to your right. Next stay we will book #83 which is elevated and we feel would be a little bit more private, by backing further in to be away from the road and your outside living area would not even see site 81 below. These are the only 2 sites that we preferred which we felt were the most private. Nice walk to the restroom and showers. Showers worked great, restrooms were very clean. Dump station pull off near the campground exit. We rode to the beach which was very nice. We are now staying at Greenbrier instead of Cunningham Falls because of being much closer in travel to Hagerstown which we frequent for antique shopping. A nice ride into Boonsboro which is a nice little town. A must stop is Vesta Pizzeria! Great subs and pizza.

Greenbrier State Park is an exemplary state park. It is a beautifully developed park with a great mix of front and back country. All of the facilities and ground are meticulously taken care of. The park has a huge swimming and picnicking area as well as a hiking trails and a visitor center. It very much sets an example for other state parks.

The greatness of Greenbrier does not stop at the swimming and picnic areas either. The campgrounds are also well taken care of and scenic. While there are not full hookups, there is electrical which is very nice at this price point. It is a great state park campground.

I stayed at Greenbrier one night on the tail end of a national park road trip and I found myself incredibly impressed by my stay at the campground.

This may be the cleanest state park we’ve stayed at in any park. The site gravel was raked, the fire pit was cleaned. Bathrooms were clean. We were here on a September Sunday and walked in day of and got a spot for $28 (paid extra since we were not MD residents). Campground was mostly empty.
AT&T service was strong enough to stream NFL Sunday ticket ;) ... so that was a bonus! Park very quiet and close to the I-70.

Two notes, there is an alcohol ban unless inside your RV. And only two of the four camp loops are pet friendly. If you bring your pooch, you need the Cedar or Deadwood loops.

Beautiful state park with a small lake near some great hiking. The campground is well cared for and very clean. Several nice trails in the park can be accessed from the campground. The lake and beach area are a short walk from campground and are very nice but get extremely crowded on warm weekends. Camp hosts take great care of the sites and everything is very clean. Site are a bit close together but there are enough trees to feel fairly private. The only downsides to the campground are somewhat narrow turns that might be tough for a larger RV and a lack of dumpsters (one dumpster area all the way by the dump station)
Overall this is without a doubt one of the best state parks we have visited!