The way the Maryland Department of Natural Resources describes it, the 2,000-acre
Wolf Den Run State Park in Garrett County is a nature-lover’s dream:
“The property comprises three distinct parcels, including approximately three miles of frontage on the Potomac River’s North Branch, three brook trout streams, mixed forest, and unique rocky bluffs rising 900 feet above the Potomac River. All three parcels include areas of rugged, mountainous terrain with numerous ephemeral streams, meadows, small tributaries, and wetlands.”
If you like camping, hiking, mountain biking, fishing, birding or horseback riding, this new park, near the
town of Kitzmiller and the West Virginia border, sounds idyllic. And there’s a bonus: The land is no longer mined for coal, and hundreds of its acres have turned green again. By purchasing it in 2017 with $3.67 million in federal funds and funds from Program Open Space, Maryland took another step into the great reforestation that has been underway in the eastern states for years.
But Wolf Den Run has not been set aside as a place of remote tranquility. It has been motorized. It is now Maryland’s only park for OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) enthusiasts. For a fee, they will be allowed to drive their two-, three- and four-wheel machines over many miles of trails. In fact, an area known as Huckleberry Rocks quietly opened for them this month, with 12.5 miles of trails, half of which can accommodate vehicles such as Jeeps.