Loch Raven Reservoir

I love this park, it is one of my favorite places. I’ve only walked on the primary walking route which is a very refreshing. I will explore the hiking trails in the near future.

Great place to hike with dogs off leash year round.
Minus one star b/​c I saw the biggest snake of my life here and it scared the living daylights out of me. I AM NOT A SNAKE FAN. Beautiful peaceful place though with lots of differentt trails.

Amazing place to go for a run with your dog, to bike, or to picnic! Loch Raven Reservoir is huge, and has a bunch of trails to choose from. I also like that some of the roads are closed off to cars — it makes it a tranquil place to spend an afternoon.
One tip — put the address listed here, not just the name «Loch Raven Reservoir,» into your GPS. When I put in «Loch Raven Reservoir,» it took me to a place that didn’t have parking or a visible trail entrance.

Reasonable price, ample availability of boats, and a really peaceful, fun locale. Our family of four wouldn’t fit inside one vessel, so the wife nursed a hangover for the first hour while I took the chitlins out on the water, then we traded places. There are some nosy geese in the reservoir who longed for our sunflower seeds, but I didn’t see a ton of wildlife otherwise. One fish jumped out of the water.
The only two things of sournote were the smarmy teenagers working the joint, and the toilet. The former is fine actually: we were all entitled children in our day, so the sassitude is relatively easy to look past.
The men’s room was easily the most amazing site I’ve seen in a while: the urinal was full of brownish liquid that was overflowing and dripping down the sides, a trail of the stuff trickled down to the drain. Poop smears. A rich odor. It’s the kind of place you regret walking into and try with all your might to get away from as quickly as possible.
But beyond that, the glory of the water awaits.

LOVE IT! Great childhood memories and I miss it in California.

It’s fairly traveled, so it’s not as serene as I’d like. But it’s still a beautiful spot just outside of Baltimore.
The sunsets are the best and the constant company of birds is a nice touch.
Take a look at my pictures, and decide for yourself.

For the who love nature and the outdoors this is a beautiful, relaxing, scenic, getaway from the city. Miles of waterfront shore, multiple historic bridges, the Loch Raven Damm, it relaxing retreat anytime of the year!

I recently moved to Baltimore. Where I used to live, in Chicago, I spent a whole lot of quality time with one of the more beautiful arboretums on earth, walking around and dusting the city off my shoulders on weekends. If you’re someone who grew up in (and loved) a beautiful rural or small town environment who has since moved to a city because of the many more opportunities they offer for work and company, I suspect you’ll understand. After checking out a few parks and the somewhat underwhelming Cylburn Arboretum, I was sort of surprised at how much trouble I was having finding a new Narnia-​in-​the-​Springtime for myself after moving here. Now that I’ve been to Loch Raven, I feel a lot better.
This place isn’t really developed as a park/​hiking area. The trails (which I haven’t yet explored – there may, in fact, only be one official trail) are fairly well hidden. There’s no Baltimore County website pointing to this place and saying that they want you to hang around there and gawk at the primordially huge pine trees. Maybe this is a blessing, in some respects; there are always people there, but it isn’t terrifically crowded. You pull over by the side of one of the roads – I recommend Loch Raven Drive for this – and you get out and walk around. A lot of people fish – the Loch Raven Fishing Center is one of the intentional uses to which this beautiful place is put. A lot more just kind of wander and look dazed and happy, though. And it’s understandable – it looks like you’re at some undiscovered lake in the middle of the Adirondacks, not just north of Towson, when you’re at this place.
Ever since I first went, whenever I’m in the middle of something else during the day, I find my mind straying back to the place and, if I’m not careful, my car keys in my hand.
My preferred use apart from just standing around with my jaw hanging open at how beautiful this place is, thus far, has been putting a blanket on the ground with my fiancé, and eating carrots and cheese and crackers while reading a The City of Dreaming Books to each other. Finding any peaceful way to spend time here from now on is high on my list of priorities. It smells the way it’s supposed to smell outside where things are growing, and you can point at the fish in the water, and wonder what bug that is. To me, this sort of thing is more worth spending time on than just about anything.