Greenbelt Park has family-friendly hiking trails.  by Brian Vallelunga licensed under Creative Commons.

This article was first published on September 16, 2016. It’s always fun to explore transit-accessible travel destinations, so we wanted to share this piece with you again.

Sure, the Metro can take you to many places, but did you know that you can take it to go backpacking? Parks in both Maryland and Virginia have campgrounds that are less than a one-hour hike away from Metro stations.

Greenbelt Park in Greenbelt, Maryland

This 174-site campground sits atop a heavily wooded ridge between two small streams that feed into the Anacostia River, within a National Park Service-run park that also has nine miles of hiking trails. It’s a two-mile walk from the east entrance to the College Park Metro, about half of which is on sidewalks (going near the College Park Aviation Museum) and the other half on trails; NPS even provides convenient turn-by-turn directions.

The park is also about three miles south of Old Greenbelt, an experimental town built by the federal government during the Great Depression.

Lake Fairfax Park’s group campground. Photo by Adam Theo.

Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, Virginia

The three campgrounds near Lake Fairfax are run by the Fairfax County Park Authority. The hike from Wiehle Metro to the nearest campsite is just under two miles. The park’s southern trailhead is at the end of Michael Faraday Court, four blocks from Reston Metro Plaza. That trail continues downstream down Colvin Run all the way to Great Falls Park. Besides the recreational lake, the park also has a skateboard area and an “activity pool” with waterslides and a lazy river.

Reston was also built as an experimental planned community, albeit in the 1960s, and the campground is three miles from Reston’s original “village center.”

Lockhouse 6, one of six cabins for rent along the C&O Canal Image by Jeff Vincent licensed under Creative Commons.

C&O Canal National Historic Park in Brookmont, Maryland

If a cabin with a kitchen and water views is more your style, Lockhouse 6 is a restored cabin right along the C&O canal that you can rent out for $150 per night. Built almost 200 years ago for canal employees, it’s now decorated in a 1950s style and includes a kitchen and bathroom.

Getting there takes either a three-mile walk from the Friendship Heights Metro — or just a five-minute walk from RideOn’s bus route 23, which runs Monday through Saturday and stops at Broad Street and Maryland Avenue in Brookmont. A campsite that convenient does have one drawback: the cabin backs up to busy Clara Barton Parkway.