GRSF 2026 - Fall Colors Tour

Community Kit

Hey SubieCrew! Join up for a Fall Colors Trail Driving Tour at Maryland's Green Ridge State Forest on Saturday, October 17th, 2026 at 11am. This driving tour is a full loop that begins/ends at the forest headquarters and is approximately 50 miles roundtrip. It's been a tradition of mine the past 5 years to visit this area on either the second/third weekend of October. Its right when the leaves are changing colors and definately one of my favorite times to visit! Aiming to meet up at Belle Grove Grocery at 10:30-11am (12937 Orleans Rd NE, Little Orleans, MD 21766). Belle Grove Grocery is a great touchdown place to grab gas and any last minute drink/snacks for our journeys. Inside there is also a small sit down homestyle breakfast diner too if arriving early! Hoping to leave Belle Grove by 11:15ish and drive over to the GRSF Headquarters. There is a small lookout point here as well as opportunities to use restrooms and see if any driving trails are closed. From there, we will convoy out on about a 4-5 hour loop to visit a variety of lookout points connected by a series of moderately maintained dirt/gravel service roads. About 25% of the way into the trip there is a 1.7mile riverwalk hike along the C&O Canal that we can walk together if interested to visit Indigo Tunnel, which is now a protected Bat Sanctuary. There is a lot of history here involving late 1800’s Railway Planning, C&O Canal Development, Sustainable Logging, etc. Loop Summary: GRSF Headquarters, M.V. Smith Rd, Tower Lookout, Mountain Road, Orleans Rd, Fifteen Mile Creek C&O Canel Parking Lot, Indigo Tunnel Hike, Point Lookout, Carroll/Kasecamp Rd, Mertens Ave, Banner’s Overlook, Log Roll Overlook, Jacobs Rd, Zumbrun Overlook, GRSF Headquarters. Depending on interest levels, we could extend our time together, bringing extra gear along and reserving a nearby campsite to spend the night into the 18th. Stock 8.7in of ground clearance and standard AWD will be all you need for this trail system! Update: 10/16/26 - Hey everyone! Chapter/Regional Lead Ricky here for our (GRSF) 2026 - Fall Colors Tour tomorrow. I am prepared to run this event rain or shine. I've been on this loop countless times in the past 7 years of my Crosstrek ownership and its always been a pleasure no matter the conditions. Its been relatively rainy here in Central Maryland and I expect our destination to have been very similar. Its not to worry though! Some of my favorite times to go in the past have been after rain. Expect wet and muddy conditions out there. We will definitely get some amazing pictures! For Trail Drives, I like to use the OnX Offroad Technical Ratings Guide that can be found at https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/app/features/technical-trail-ratings On their 1-10 scale, we will be in the 1.0 - 2.5 range. We can expect relatively unmaintained rutted dirt/rocky roads with occasional 4-6inch obstacles. For this tour's proposed loop, there will be two very small creek crossings (1-3 inches of slow moving water for 3-4 feet in traversal distance). Trails are typically one vehicle wide with select places to pull aside if we encounter opposing traffic. The stock 8.7in of ground clearance and standard AWD found in the Subaru CUV/SUV lines will be all you need for this trail system! 3 years ago, I brought a 360 Camera to these trails and created this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC6HGArC968 . The video is fully interactable, feel free to pan your device or mouse click around to change the view. Its a good example of what to expect. If you have any questions or concerns about about your vehicle on this trip, feel free to send me a text at 240-204-4453 or add me on Discord @rikysongsu. Over'n'out.