Today was a beautiful fall day! We loaded up the kids and headed for Bacon Ridge Natural Area in Crownsville. It was close to home, yet we had never been here. I had read on the AllTrails app that it was often busy, and I was concerned about social distancing. Still, we gave it a whirl and had a great time!
The parking lot for the southern trailhead is just off Hawkins Road. It is a tiny gravel lot, and we knew we were in the right spot by the number of cars both in the lot and parked along the road. Fortunately, Hawkins Rd. widens here before crossing I-97, and that leaves ample room for parking on the road. There is one porta-potty available, too.
We stopped at the trailhead to check out the map. It was absolutely useless! We decided to follow the trail, and I used the map on the AllTrails app to keep track of where we were. The trail itself is not marked, but easy to follow. It is hard packed dirt, with a few mud wallows we had to avoid. There were other hikers and a lot of mountain bikers. Everyone was friendly, many were wearing masks, and all made an effort to social distance. The trail was narrow, but cyclists made an effort to let us know they were coming.
The trail wound up and down through the woods. It was beautiful! We could see the Bacon Ridge Branch meandering at the bottom of the small ravine. Both Rainbow and Pebble followed Stormy’s lead and tried to walk every fallen log like it was a balance beam!
Rainbow found a lot of turkey tails to show Pebble. They looked like tiny fans. We also saw numerous signs with QR codes. When we scanned them with the phone’s camera, they took us to short YouTube videos about various invasive species as well as areas of historical interest. After walking over a mile, we came to our first trail sign. It was where north and south trails met up, and we decided to turn back toward the parking lot. Both Rainbow and Pebble were tiring, and Pebble didn’t want to hitch a ride on my back. Goldfish proved to be a valuable motivation tool for these two!
Once we made the turn, we started hiking though an area where we were flanked by younger trees on our right and more ravines to our left.
As we learned from another QR code, this area used to be farmland! And in the ravine at the end of the former field were several old junked cars. It was amazing to see these old rusted hulks!
Once we finished exploring the cars, we continued to follow the twisting, winding path back to the parking lot. Stormy was beyond curious about the cars, and asked about the old Crownsville Hospital, too. We will definitely be back to walk more of the trails! I’m so glad that the signs with the QR code’s were up as it helped answer some of my kiddo’s questions. All in all, we hiked just over 2 miles, and it was perfect for a Sunday morning. Definitely, worth checking out!
