Just a forty minute drive from our Airbnb in Sharpsburg is Catoctin Mountain Park. Like Harpers Ferry and Antietam National Battlefield, Catoctin Mountain Park is maintained and operated by the National Park Service. If you're like me, when you think of the National Park Service you think of the National Parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.. In reality, the 63 "National Parks" make up less than 15 percent of the 423 "units" covering more than 85 million acres that our park services oversees.
The very nice and informative park ranger at Catoctin Mountain Park smiled as she explained that there are nineteen different naming designations (National Parks, National Battlefields, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, etc.). She went on to share with me that there are eleven different units that just don't fit into any of the designations and that Catoctin Mountain Park is one of those eleven. She chuckled as she used the analogy that the park was like the weird aunt, uncle or cousin that every family has that just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the family. While it may not fit into any of the designations, we found the 5,770 acre park to be very scenic and to have a couple of very unique features that none of the other National Park Service units can claim, and there is no admission fee!
The first of these is that camps (built by the CCC in 1939) within the park were closed when the US entered World War II. The camps converted to rehabilitation facilities for injured soldiers and then into a training facility for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS was a new government intelligence gathering and espionage agency. It has evolved into what we now know as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The GPS brought us into the park on the opposite end from where the visitors center is located (MD-77 and Park Central Road). We're glad it did because the 10-15 drive along this winding road, under a canopy of tall trees, was very impressive. Making it even more enjoyable was the fact that it seemed as if we had the park pretty much to ourselves, only passing one or two cars as we made our way to the visitors center.
In addition to the brief lesson on the National Park Services designations, we were also given some suggestions of a place to enjoy a picnic and hike. While the park has over 25 miles of hiking trails. most of the longer (2+ miles) trails are considered moderate to strenuous due to elevation changes and terrain. We asked about and were pointed in the direction of some very enjoyable shorter trails. We enjoyed a picnic at the Blue Ridge Summit Trailhead as well as the 1.2 mile round trip hike to the overlook. We also enjoyed the two mile (roundtrip) hike to Hog Rock, which also had a nice overlook of the park.
After hiking we stopped back by the visitors center to get some information on Cunningham Falls State Park which is adjacent to Catoctin Mountain Park. The state park land was once a part of Catoctin Mountain Park, but in 1954 it was turned over to the Maryland State Park Service In addition to wanting information on the state park I had a couple of other questions for my park ranger friend.
The second unique thing about Catoctin Mountain Park is that Camp David, the presidential retreat since the FDR administration, is located within the park. The general location of Camp David is somewhat easy to figure out because if the president or another high ranking official is there sections of the park are closed. Inquiring minds want to know, so I had to ask................"were we overlooking Camp David from either the Blue Ridge Summit or Hog Rock? She had a one word answer for me.....No! At that point I assumed that since she been so helpful that she was under instructions not to talk about Camp David, so I just had to push a little more. I looked at the map and asked "can you point to Camp David? She looked at me, smiled and said "it's within the boundary of the park". I interpreted that to mean "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you"!
The irony of that whole conversation about the location of Camp David is that it's actually not a big secret. When I pulled up google maps earlier this morning, it's location was shown on the map! I think we might have seen it from Hog Rock but I'm not sure. Besides, if I told you where it was I guess I'd have to kill you............just look for it on Google Maps!
