Greenbelt Park Campground

Exploring DC
-We didn’t know what to expect when we found this park and I wanted to share our experience. For reference we travel with our dog and no tow rig so our options for getting to DC were limited.
-We camped in B loop near the ranger station and used Lyft and Uber to go to/from DC. The ranger station made an easy drop off and pick up point. We found an average of about $25 per ride, but we avoided peak traffic times, you might find different rates.
-There is a .7 mile trail at the end of D loop to the metro station but it was closed during our stay and didn’t seem like it would be open any time soon.
-We didn’t book a site in advance as there were lots available and we didn’t know what we’d find. While there’s no hook ups there were plenty of shady spots and some more open spots for solar.
-As to safely, we didn’t find any concerns and there’s a park police station at the entrance to the park. There is a two mile drive from the park entrance to the campground.
-While the park definitely needs some cleanup and maintenance it had flush toilets and hot showers. We’ll stay here again.

The Good: Just a few minutes away from the nearest Metro station that takes you to the National Mall in about 25 minutes with cheap parking. Campground is very green and good shade. Pretty quiet. Good cellphone signal.

The Bad: Bathrooms are not cleaned and only 1 shower stall for the whole of C loop. Be careful going into the woods due to ticks.

My daughter is a cancer patient at Children’s National. I wanted to grab a spot close to DC that would give her some peace and some time to recover from chemotherapy before we did the long drive home. The park is clean and easy to access. The campground spaces are clustered close to each other so carefully review the map before you select your spot.

Stayed for one night as a pit stop heading north. Large campground with lots of spots. It was December so only about 10% of the sites were being used. Campgrounds with no hookups should make up for it with nice reliable bathhouses. This one did not. The bathhouses look original with no upgrades since they were built in prob the 1950s. The women’s shower (only one) had no door and a curtain that wouldn’t cover the stall opening. Huge safety issue. The sites aren’t level but they worked. Wouldn’t recommend staying here for rigs over 20ft.

First, I will acknowledge up front that this was a very tough couple of years for Greenbelt Park. This past summer in particular was bad, as a bad windstorm blew over hundreds of trees and made campsites and trails inaccessible. A water main break in the early fall didn’t help matters. The campground reopened Sept. 30th; we stayed from that day until Oct. 2nd. We shouldn’t have bothered: this campground was not ready to be reopened. As we drove to our site, we saw many sites that were not yet cleared of trees, limbs, and branches and yet were available. We spent half an hour clearing our site from debris. The restrooms were old and poorly maintained - the lady’s room had 3 dirty stalls, one with no door and the other with no lock. Shower was decent, with good hot water - but there were only 2 shower stalls per loop. The storm damage is forgivable, under the circumstances, but really the bath house conditions were inexcusable. I know the site only cost us $10 a night - but I’m not sure this was any bargain!