Fort Smallwood Park — Attraction in Maryland

This would have been a 4-5 star review however, as I have been coming to this park since 4 years old for over 30 years. The park is awesome!!! However, today one park ranger ruined all the decades worth of memories i have of this place. Today my father, my two sons (3y/o and 7 months old) and I went out fishing about 5pm as we usually do at least once or twice a week from spring to fall. We were aware of the closing time listed on the website, which states (5:30a.m. to dusk). We fished the pier for a little over an hour with four other park patrons one Black couple and one Hispanic couple when the park ranger pulled up at the beginning of the pier and screamed at us through his megaphone that the pier was closed ten minutes ago and to gather our belongings. We were all expecting the usually cordial, yet professional announcement that the park is closing soon. NOT TODAY! Everyone on the pier, in shock, scrambled to get their equipment and belongings together. The ranger pulls away in his truck then returns no more than 5 minutes later and screams at us again through the megaphone "you should be gone by now!" "This is ridiculous!" and that we were now trespassing and threatened to call the police. As we were all still scrambling to gather our belongings. All seven of us my father, son, and I and the two other couples rush from the pier to our vehicles, fishing rods, coolers, backpacks, bags, baby stroller, we find the ranger taking photographs on a cellphone of our vehicles and license plates just as another park patron (an older Caucasian gentleman) just taking a stroll walks right out on the pier we just scrambled from 🤨. I exclaimed to the park ranger that he could have given us a heads up like usual and he again threatened to call the police to cite us for trespassing and report our tag numbers. The mind-blowing part of this experience is, I found out after leaving the park, we were out of the park gates 25 minutes before dusk... 🤨🤔 I had paid my money for entry only to be threatened out of the park almost 30 minutes before the time advertised as closing. I have never all the years coming here had any issue at all especially with the park rangers which are normally very respectful and professional. I will not visit this park, at least for the rest of this year and will be filing a complaint with the office as I have never been treated this poorly as a park patron in all the years I have been here. I will find another place to give my money if this issue is...

It is a great place to grill or put up a tent or a hammock. Has a nice beach to swim with the kids. It costs about $6 to get in unless you are a veteran, then it's free. The only downfall is that it fills up very quickly. There are always ALOT of Hispanic's there and they seem to take up all the good areas on purpose. So unless you GET THERE VERY EARLY or bring your own chairs, tent, table, and grill you won't really enjoy. And there are so many people that unless you time it correctly, the beach will be packed as well. Here's my story so you can get an honest idea of what to expect. My family and I went on the 4th of July. We woke up at 6am and arrived around 8am. The park was nearly full when we arrived. Those people are not playing. Luckily we brought our own chairs, tent and grill so we searched for a table and a spot to pitch the tent. People were hogging 2 &3 tables just because they can. Finally after circling the park twice and debating whether we should just tailgate out the trunk, we settled on a place to set up. We didn't have a table but we made due. While circling the park we noticed that the beach was very busy, so we decided to grill first. And boy am I glad we did. By the time we finished grilling it was around noon and most of the other people had already been to the beach and were now cooking out. So we were able to enjoy ourselves at the beach. Was even suprised to find that there were two beaches. All in all, we had a good time because we were smart about what we did and when. Plan to come VERY Early (seriously, like as soon as it opens,if you want to get a nice spot.) Also, it may be smart to bring a roll of your own toilet tissue just in case the bathroom runs out. Because we weren't going near those...

I have been fishing and crabbing at Ft Smallwood Park since last year. The park is really nice, clean and spacious. The fishing pier is well kept, clean and has a diverse group of nice people fishing and crabbing. I was very disappointed when the park rangers drove to the pier on Friday September 2nd and told everyone that the pier was closed. This happened at 6:45pm. The pier is not scheduled to close until dusk. The anglers didn't get any advance notice and were just told that the pier was closed. According to the signs at the entrance, the pier is supposed to close at 7:30pm I was at the fishing pier again on Sunday September 4th. There was a good amount of anglers on the pier. I went to the concession stand at 3:30 to get something to drink. One of the park rangers was behind the counter and told me that the concession stand was closed because rhe lady who was working the stand earlier was"tired". The concession stand was supposed to be open until 4pm. The park rangers drove to the pier at 6:42pm and told everyone that the pier would be closing in 15 minutes. Again, this was very inconvenient and inconsiderate of the anglers. There were several new anglers who walked onto the pier ready to fish after the announcement was made. I wonder why the people at the gate didn't inform them that the pier would be closing soon. I am disappointed in how the park rangers have gone against the park schedule for when the pier and concession stand closes. Closing these two popular park amenities before they are scheduled to close made the anglers feel very...