I visited Ladew Topiary Gardens for the first time this past weekend, and I can't believe it took…read moreme so long to check it out. Located in Monkton, Ladew is only a half hour from Baltimore, and it's well worth the drive. Ladew's gardens were establish by Harvey Ladew in the 1930s. The grounds contain 15 garden "rooms," arranged around two cross axes with vistas. The garden is noted for its topiaries, and I was blown away by the gardens' beauty. I took tons of photos! It was a beautiful, slighly chilly early May morning, and we wandered into every corner of the gardens before reading our books on the hill over looking the meadow behind the Manor House. We accidentally visited on the day of their 18th Annual Garden Festival, so they weren't offering tours of the manor house, so I'll definitely return for that. But the gardens were beautiful, and we made visits to the Studio (where you can see some of Ladew's paintings), and the Barn Gallery, and the Cafe (which sells sandwiches, snacks, pastries, coffees, etc.). Ladew is lovely. It might be the most beautiful garden in Maryland! I am certain I will return for another visit. On a beautiful day, there's no where else in Maryland I'd rather be!

my family had a horrible experience with ladew cafe chef Joe borkoski. He was condescending,…read moredisrespectful, arrogant and dismissive. I would say stay away from this cafe as long as he is there! He was 100% unprofessional.

Kilgore is a lovely place for an easy to moderate hiking trail. It's open daily but you need a…read morepermit on the weekends from Memorial day to Labor Day I believe. To get to the waterfall you have to walk a path that's about 10-15 minutes. You will have to climb over some rocks in the water in your travels, but once you get to the waterfall you will absolutely love it. *Please note* Wear comfortable shoes because there are some areas that could be potentially dangerous if you don't take your time.

[Coronavirus review] This is a small site auxiliary to Rocks…read moreState Park. Notably, the parking lot requires an advance reservation on peak dates, and this policy has been expanded to cover more dates due to the pandemic lockdown pushing people to spend their days outdoors. The trail is a short loop to the falls. Great Falls this isn't, but it's significant enough to generate a nice spray. A rather upset-looking fish flopped down shallow water as I approached. Upstream of the falls was a challenge. Few fords were viable, perhaps owing to heavy rain, and signs suggesting the area was blocked off were ignored by expeditions looking for better crossings. I made it across the stream and back, but I did get a little wet. The scenery isn't worth a long drive on its own, but paired with the other local park sites, it makes for good viewing, and in particular this space with its parking limitations can't get too crowded.

It was amazing long drive, but it was a great park the kids loved it. We will definitely come backread more

This is definitely one of the best, if not the best, playgrounds I have visited. Annie's playground…read moreis a beautifully kept playground in honor of a very sad true story. Our 2 year old enjoyed this playground for a good two hours. I believe it is one of the largest playgrounds and it caters to very young toddlers and older kids. It has a large parking area and bathrooms. This playground will become a regular visit for us for many years every time we come to the area.

There's a resident Bald Eagle in the park now and I've seen him five times this spring. Saw him…read moreflying upstream with a fish in his talons today. Woodpeckers, blue jays, and nuthatches were there today.

Need a park to walk with great scenery bugs, water, innocent wild life? this is a great dot to come…read morewalk. just under a mile and a half, this gives you just enough walking experience to break a small sweat. coming back to check out the views again.

Spring time in Baltimore does not get any better without a visit to Sherwood gardens for the full…read morebloom of the tulips. Me and my friends made a quick stop on the way home from brunch in the Cross Keys area, and the day was perfect for it. The park was alive with families and their furry friends just having small picnics and taking in the scenery. If you're not familiar with Sherwood Garden's, it's a privately owned community park in the Guilford section of Baltimore City. It's been famous for its annual tulip since the 1920's by John Sherwood, whose home bordered the park. To this day up to 70000 tulips are planted annually along with other flowers such as magnolias and dogwoods to name a few. Best time to visit is always towards the end of April and beginning of May. Although a private park, the public is always invited to stroll at your leisure throughout the grounds. The ongoing displays are 100% privately funded and depends entirely on contributions to fulfill its mission of providing a natural place for recreation for the community and related education.

I love tulips, so when I read about this place, I couldn't wait to visit. It's located as the…read morecenter of an expensive Baltimore block, surrounded by million dollar homes. There is no start or end, so just park on one of the surrounding streets and walk over. We were there the third weekend in April, and while the tulips were definitely past their peak, and many were completely gone, there were plenty of flower beds of tulips still blooming. Plus, almost all of the azaleas were blooming. I loved that they had so many different colored tulips and azaleas. They did different combination of colors in all the different flower beds, so we ended up seeing some surprisingly beautiful displays, even with some tulips no longer blooming. We weren't there very long because it was cold out, but this would be a great spot for engagement pictures or a picnic.

Great place for kids!! There is plenty of space for my son to roam free! We really enjoy it just…read morehave to watch out for splinters and possible accidents since it is made of wood.

Really fun playground off of Route 22, right across from John Carroll school. It's very…read morewell-maintained, and has a separate area for smaller children. I do wish it had more benches for the adults, but it's still a great playground with everything including slides, tires, monkey bars, and sandboxes. There is only one way in/out, which is good because you don't have to necessarily follow your child every single time they move. I just pick an area close to the entrance/exit and make sure to keep an eye on her as she moves around :)

I hadn't been out to OR for a long time but had the opportunity to enjoy some nature and food truck…read moretacos on a beautiful Baltimore day. The trees are in full bloom, everything is green and bursting with life and it was peaceful in this place. Beware of the poison ivy though - it's everywhere and it's YUGE!

This is one of our favorite places to visit because of the scenic trails and the indoor nature…read morecenter displays. The trails are relatively easy but fun to explore and you can go shorter or longer distances depending how much time you have. We enjoy visiting for a change of pace from the Pennsylvania State Parks because while the trails aren't extremely rugged or long, they're fun and the nature center has interesting displays and creatures to visit.

Love love love this park! There are endless sceneries to enjoy--creekside, meadows, woods. We love…read morehiking the trails and they are very well-planned and marked. The pine tree alleyway is my favorite! The waterfall from the dam is a cool feature, and during the warmer months they allow people to kayak with multiple launches. They have a large pavilion, several parking lots, and bathrooms on site. Get your camera ready for some great shots of nature!

Eden Mill is one of our golden retriever's favorite places, the moment we turn onto Fawn Grove Rd…read morehe starts pacing and crying/barking, vocalizing his excitement, eagerly anticipating the swimming that's about to go down. We usually park at the small parking area at the end of the road where the bridge is being reconstructed then walk down the path to the water. Our golden loves leaping off the concrete stair at the bottom of the path then we take a short hike down the trail so he can dry off. There are several different trails you can hike and a lot of weekends they have "ranger encounters" where a ranger teaches you about the local wildlife, flora & fauna. The nature center has different animals and displays inside and there's also a working beehive and beautiful garden where you can observe the birds & butterflies and they have a pavilion with picnic tables. If you enjoy kayaking, this is the place for you, they have a couple of areas where you can launch and cruise Deer Creek at your own pace.

Such a beautiful place for a picnic! We enjoyed the views in the evening up until sunset. It was a…read morefew people there but not enough to distract you from relaxing. I only rated it a 4 because people don't clean up after their dogs and it literally took a while for us to find a clear spot to lay our blanket down. Hopefully this can get better.

Sooo I've been to this loop a few times to walk/jog prior to today 07'04'20 and always referred to…read moreit as the Quarry Loop but today I discovered that this location has a totally separate entrance from the homes and shopping/dining area and has its own identity, pretty neat. There are benches scattered throughout that are facing inward toward the lake, some with amazing views and a few obstructed by the trees & greenery but still serene spots to just sit, relax & chat or just take in the scenery. The trail/loop is a little under 2 miles in total and it offers great views, some flowers here and there and loads of geese. I've never experienced it being overly crowded with people on the loop and the atmosphere is very peaceful. I will continue to frequent this park. Oh and if it ever gets too hot while out there, you can always pop into Rita's Italian Ice or Custard ;-)

What a breathtaking scenic view you get while walking this trail. The trail is maintained really…read morewell, I didn't see any trash, and there is spacious walking space between you, bikes, runners, and other walkers. You also get some great views of birds and the water. The trail is so long, it just keeps going on and on. Where I parked was a little small, and I could see the parking lot getting too full if you don't get to the park early enough. Regardless, this was a relaxing trail to walk on and I will 100% take it again soon.

Torrey Brown Trail (Ashland, MD to Mason Dixon Line [PA])…read more We ride segments of this trail with some regularity. This trip on Labor Day was from Whitehall to Mason Dixon Line (approx.9 miles, 18+ out & back). We were going to park at Monkton Station and have a longer ride, but holiday brought out everyone, and their brother, sister, cousin, college friends, camp counselors, army buddies, ...etc! So we navigated to the Whitehall stop. One feature of this trail is the many trailheads as options. The ride out climbs (4% max) to the PA line, it does, especially at the end feel a bit taxing, in a good way. We were on our Cannondale Topstone gravel bikes (37mm tires). The surface is consistent well packed limestone/ fine gravel. The ride back towards Whitehall is mostly a coasting excercise. The "crowd" offered all level of rider, walker, dog walker, jogger, stroller ladies, etc. so it wasn't as serene as this segment can usually be. For the most part, except on the busiest days at Torrey Brown (across 20+ mile stretch) can be quite private away from the trailheads. Good day, nice weather, great ride.