Poplar Grove Youth Group Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 29 of the next 30 nights read 16:02 UTC
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Poplar Grove offers youth groups and organizations enjoyable year-round primitive tent camping. Located just steps away from the Catoctin Mountain Park portion of the Catoctin National Recreation Trail in the rolling hills of Thurmont, Maryland. Poplar Grove allows youth groups to experience traditional wilderness camping in a beautiful, natural setting. Keep reading
Recreation
As a primitive camping area, Poplar Grove encourages youth to use healthy doses of imagination while surrounded by the natural landscape. Nature hikes and campfire circles are popular activities. Catoctin Mountain Park offers 25 miles (40 km) of trails for additional hiking opportunities.
Facilities
Poplar Grove allows youth to connect with nature in a rustic campground setting. Three (3) group sites can accommodate up to 25 visitors. There are (2) two vault toilets and pavilion are centrally located. Water is not available. Site campfire circles and grills exist at each of the three camp sites. Firewood is provided onsite, dead wood may be collected for fires. Each group site is limited to (2) two vehicles or (1) vehicle and (1) utility trailer (unhooked) parked in designated spaces. Additional vehicles need to be parked at Camp Round Meadow. Overnight parking is not permitted on Manahan Road. Due to seasonal road closures, the campground is closed in the Winter. For further information please call the Visitors Center between 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at (301) 663- 9388. During your stay (after hours) contact 24 hour dispatch at 1-866-677-6677 or 301-714-2235.
Natural Features
Poplar Grove offers tree sheltered, flat tent sites. The campground is surrounded by a hardwood decidious forest. Whether blanketed in snow in winter months or blooming with wildflowers in the spring, Poplar Grove offers beautiful scenery all year.
Nearby Attractions
The Catoctin Mountain Park Visitor Center is located four miles (1.2 km) away and offers interpretive programs. Just three miles (4.8 km) away, visitors can enjoy fishing and canoeing at Cunningham Falls State Park (entrance fee applies). Contact Info
What the agency tells you
Reservations required. Reservations are required and may be booked up to 6 months in advance.
Youth Groups only. Poplar Grove is available only for sanctioned youth groups/organizations. At least 50% of the group must be under the age of 18 and currently enrolled in the organization.
Self check-in and self check-out. Please practice Leave No Trace principles.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Check-out. Check-out time is 12:00 noon.
Parking. Two vehicles are allowed per site or one vehicle and one utility trailer (unhooked) parked in designated spots. Additional parking is located 1 mile (1.6 km) from the campground at Camp Round Meadow.
Bring your own water. Water is not available in Poplar Grove.
No pets. Pets are not allowed
Firewood. Firewood is available at Poplar Grove. The transportation of firewood into the park is not permitted. Dead/downed wood may be collected.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 3 · 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Meadow
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Fall color · reported 4 days ago, 26 km away
- Minimal color
Something open on 22 of the next 29 bookable nightsread 16:02 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
Every one of the 3 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 3 are free on Mon, Oct 26. read 16:02 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:02 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 3 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 3 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Camp Greentop Dining Hall and Rec HallCatoctin Mountain Park · 0.3 mi
Camp GreentopCatoctin Mountain Park · 0.3 mi
Owens Creek CampgroundCatoctin Mountain Park · 0.9 mi
Adirondack SheltersCatoctin Mountain Park · 1.2 mi
Camp Misty MountCatoctin Mountain Park · 1.5 mi
Camp Round MeadowCatoctin Mountain Park · 1.5 miPoplar Grove is located on Manahan Road in the western portion of Catoctin Mountain Park. From Route 15, exit at Catocin Mountain Park/Route 77. Travel approximately six miles west, passing the Visitor Center and Park Central Road. Turn right on Foxville-Deerfield Road and bear to the right onto Manahan Road at the fork. Poplar Grove is located about a mile ahead on the gravel road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sabillasville, MD
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 23°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Poplar Grove Youth Group Campground is in Maryland’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, April McClain Delaney (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →