Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in Maryland (2021 Riding Season Year-End Review)

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We looked at a full collection of 2021 motorcycle riding season data when millions of riders visited MotorcycleRoads.com to find the best motorcycles rides and routes in the USA, Canada, and abroad.  For over 20 years now, MotorcycleRoads.com has been documenting the best/most-popular motorcycle roads, routes, and rides and for about a decade, we have published annual reports after diving into the website's statistics (which routes are riders researching the most, which routes are getting the most photo/video/comment uploads, etc., etc.) to determine which of the motorcycle routes have risen to the top in motorcycle rider popularity.  We look at a complex set of factors (see Note 2 below) to determine which of the motorcycle rides in each of the states and US regions are the most popular and rated to be the best by motorcycle riders just like you.  Our very popular annual "Top Motorcycle Rides per Region" guides cover the best rides for each of the four official riding regions of the USA: the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West.  This year we took things a step further and decided to gone one level deeper and develop guides outlining the Top 5 Best Motorcycle Rides in for the US states and so you are seeing one of those such guides on this page.   

Maryland has motorcycle roads traveling lush wooded forest, great cliff and rock cutouts, along and through several of its many islands, and many many miles of coastal driving along its unique vast collection of inlets, bays and channels.  Not all of Maryland's motorcycle rides are favorites so we've looked over a years worth of motorcycle ride data on the state and came up with a list of 5 great Maryland motorcycle rides.  So, starting from #5 and working our way down to the #1 best motorcycle ride in Maryland .

 

After reviewing an entire year of activity of Maryland motorcycle riders, here are the results:

Top 5 Most Popular Motorcycle Rides in Maryland!


#5 Sterling - Front Royal - Charles Town Loop

The Sterling - Front Royal - Charles Town Loop provides a mix of suburban, rural, and mountain routes. Expect flat-open rural roads until you enter West Virginia and reach Charles Town. You will run around moderate curves and ascend some mountains as you depart Charles Town on Route 9.

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#4 Winchester VA To Deep Creek Lake MD

Everyone should put this 104-mile route on their bucket list. You are surrounded by trees as you travel up into the hills and return down. This route takes you through a number of charming villages, crosses rivers, and runs beside them.

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#3 Charles County Loop Along The Potomac River

The western part of Charles County is quite rural. There are several back roads to explore, as well as uninterrupted vistas of the Potomac River. St. Ignatius Church of La Plata is located on the loop. Along the Charles County Loop, you may expect tough twisties and steep bends.

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#2 Catoctin Mountain And Frederick County

There are 28 named mountains in Frederick County. Catoctin Mountain is the highest point. Catoctin Mountain Park, a national park (NPS), provides visitors of all ages with a range of outdoor leisure opportunities. There are 25 miles of hiking trails in the park, as well as popular trout fishing streams, camping, and equestrian riding.

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#1 Wrightsville To Columbia Via The Conowingo Dam

Take this route along the Susquehanna River if you want to see river vistas and ancient railroad bridges. Starting at the John Wright Restaurant in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania and ending at the Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia, this 90-mile route is a sight to behold.

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Note 1:  All facts and figures below were gathered in Dec of 2021 and will change over time as new motorcycle roads are added to the collection.  For an update listing, you can go to MotorcycleRoads.com at any time, search on a state of your choosing, and you'll be presented with a list of the best motorcycle roads in that state.  You can also search on the newest motorcycle routes to be registered in that state as well as sift through the routes based on other filters.  Some examples of filtered searches you can do is to filter results based on - only the routes in your state that have 5-star scenery ratings, or only routes with a 5-star driving excitement rating and at least a 3-star rating for scenery, etc. etc.

Note 2:  How were these popularity ratings calculated? 
A motorcycle road’s popularity can be based on a wide variety of factors.  Our analysis considered some obvious indicators of motorcycle road popularity such each roads’ “Rider Rating” scores (star ratings) and which motorcycle road description pages were visited the most.  But, the analysis dug deeper and looked at some less obvious yet valuable indicators of a motorcycle road’s popularity such as how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “To Ride” lists, how often a given motorcycle road was added to riders’ “Rode it” lists and enthusiasm indicators such how often photos and/or videos were uploaded for a given road and which roads are attracting the most buzz among motorcycle roads indicated by those roads that are receiving the most number of new/recent comments.  For the sake of being consistent and as objective as possible we use a popularity algorithm that “crunches those number” and allows us to develop a ranking of the popularity of each of the motorcycle roads used as a basis for this guide.


Conclusion

As always, I hope to provide you with insightful & valuable motorcycle riding community information to help you get the most out of all of your motorcycling experiences.

I'm always looking for ways to make MotorcycleRoads.com better and more helpful so if you have any suggestions to improve the website, just contact me through the Feedback button you'll find near the top of every page.  And as always, if you have a favorite motorcycle road of yours that is not yet registered on MotorcycleRoads.com, please get that favorite of yours "on the map" by registering it at MotorcycleRoads.com.  Registering a motorcycle road (or event, or club, or place) is quick and easy and you'll be helping out our motorcycle riding community!!! 

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McR - Great motorcycle roads lead to great motorcycle rides!