Cheltenham Wetlands Park — Attraction in Rosaryville

Update: The county parks did get 2 shorter trails cut through, but still have not done anything for the longer trail. Also, the 2 trails that were completed have now been ignored and there are a couple of trees down and new growth starting to cover them. The 1.5 mile out (3. Mile round trip) service road is still clear and makes for a good walk. This park has such potential. There is a sign on Frank Tippet Road for the park on Commo Rd. The parking area is on the right immediately before the entrance to the federal facility. Very easy to find. It's a pretty area in the midst of developments.This could be a nice park if MNCPPC actually cared. Boardwalk has been closed for years. I emailed them to ask why my park tax dollars aren't being used to fix the park closest to my house. Told they were working on new trails that would be completed in the fall of 2023. Well the 2nd week of December I saw that 2 trails had finally been started .5 miles in on the service road from the parking area. The one trail leads to the boardwalk which is closed on the other side, but open on this side. Be cautious if you walk on it. The other trail started, goes a bit in and then stops. I wish they would use my tax dollars and get the trails done. The service road is 1.5 miles long with markers every 1/4 mile, 3 mile round trip. It's a nice peaceful walk where you can see deer, foxes, rabbits, beaver, geese, ducks and skunks. Large rocks that are hard to walk on were used on parts of the service road. MNCPPC get this park finished. Oh plus some company ripped out trees bordering the park a few years ago to put in solar panels. That was stupid, not the fault of the park though. Lots of trash on the stream from bordering...

Well. Things started off quite sketchy. Google maps routed us along a road that cuts thru what looks like a secure DHS facility. We didn't go that way, and I hope no one freaked out because we drove up the road and then turned around. We bumped around on the roads that seemed to stick to the perimiter of the park and eventually came up Commo road from the south east end and found the park entry. There's not much sinage there, just a gravel lot and a path that looks more like a utility road than a pedestrian park trail. It isn't made any more inviting by the 6ft tall rusty barbed wire fence that walls you in as you walk along. But keep going! When the fence falls away on one side you find yourself in what you might have been expecting from a wetlands park. It's a wetland, birds, cat tails, beaver dams etc. There are built up paths that cut across and I assume encircle the marsh (or is it a bog?). We didn't actually go all the way around as the path became a bit overgrown. It shouldn't deter the average walker, but the other person in the "we" of this story is a 7 mo old. Yes, I take my 7 mo old along a sketchy barbed wire lined path into the woods. Totally worth it! We felt like we were out in the wilds though we were 40 min from...

Quiet park except for the bird song and occasional rustle of deer or muskrat in the grasses. The service road is a nice walk for over a mile along Piscataway Creek. The boardwalks take you right over the water. They need some repair work and were closed the last time we were there.

Cheltenham Wetlands Park was once part of the U.S. Naval Radio Station, Cheltenham, Maryland. It was commissioned in 1939. “The original antenna fields, comprising creosoted wood telephone poles and metal antenna towers, were located in the acreage surrounding the buildings. All metal antenna poles have been removed from the installation. Some abandoned creosoted wood poles remain in the wooded and swampy sections of the installation. Established as a radio receiving station before World War II, the installation's mission evolved to administration during the...