Some general information on the park:

Gambrill State Park Gambrill State Park is one of our favorite places to hike. About 15-20 minutes from our house, it is one of the few MD state parks where you can take leashed dogs. Dogs are not allowed in “developed” areas of many MD state parks, but generally the trails are okay.

The trails (approx. 16 miles) are marked with colored blazes on the trees and a few markers placed at key intersections. Gambrill is not a large park by some standards, but does blend into the Frederick Municipal Forest (Frederick City Watershed), which extends well into the Catoctin Mountains. Several of the trails are maintained/sponsored by volunteer organizations or local businesses like “The Trail House” in Frederick (one of our favorite stores-just a happy customer).

At one of the key parking lots for the trails there used to be a 3-D model of the trail system giving you an idea of the layouts of the trail and terrain features. They also used to have free trail maps (line drawings) showing the general layout of the trail system. The last time my wife and I hiked there, we noticed both the 3-d model and trail maps were no longer present. They now have a link on the park’s web page to purchase a trail map.

Several of the trails are co-linked leading to different offshoots. So the Black Trail may also be the Green Trail for a portion with both black and green blazes until the trails split. Most of the trails loop, so if you stick to one color and follow it you generally will come to a road or improved area (parking lot) of the park.

Cell phone coverage in the park is usually real good, since there are several cell phone towers on the ridge.

Pete