If a tree falls in the woods and no one's there to hear it, that's fine with me.

I had that thought Sunday morning as I drove through a state park that few Marylanders know about or ever will visit. In fact, I'm not going to tell you where it is. Nothing personal, friends. I just don't think the place is ready for a herd of human beings. In fact, it might never be.

You could drive to this park from downtown Baltimore in fewer than 90 minutes, assuming you know where to look. There's a modest sign at the park's entrance, but no park office, no campgrounds, no rest stop with a kiosk full of brochures. There are supposed to be a couple of places to park and some old trails, but I couldn't find them.

I pulled off the narrow road that runs through the park a couple of times so I could appreciate what's there — a vast and healthy forest of poplar and hickory, oak and ash, maple and gum, leading to a gorge with a river running through it. There had been a storm the night before, so the river was in flood, the color of coffee with extra cream, full of mud from farms upstream.

I'm sure that, on less traumatic days, the part that flows through No-Name Park is, as the Maryland Park Service puts it, "an extremely scenic stretch of river." But, I hasten to add, it's a stretch that only intrepid hikers will get to see, assuming they can find a place to park their Outbacks.

Most of the park's nearly 600 acres was a gift to the people of Maryland in the 1960s; the state acquired the rest after the bequest. The Maryland Park Service has studied the area in great detail, and its report provides an accounting of the park's natural treasures and an assessment of its potential as a place of public recreation. The report contains just about everything you'd want to know about the park, assuming you understood all the cool scientific terminology. I found it a pleasure to read, impressed with the expertise each contributor brought to the project.

•Geology: Piedmont Plateau, crystalline igneous and metamorphic rock of the pre-Cambrian and early Paleozoic period, with outcroppings of the Baltimore Gabbro Complex.

•Topography: Elevations from 120 to 440 feet above mean sea level.

•Soils: Of the Montalto-Neshaminy-Aldino association, and not much of it conducive to playground or picnic grounds. "These are deep, steep, well-drained and moderately well-drained soils that are underlain by basic, semi-basic, or mixed basic and acidic rocks. Erosion and stoniness are major limitations to uses on these soils." In other words, this park is not going to be friendly to a lot of human foot traffic.

•Wildlife: White-tail deer and beaver have returned in healthy numbers, along with many forest interior-dwelling birds. Bald eagles have been observed, but no nests have been found.

•Wetlands: About 10 acres are "riverine while the rest are palustrine and include areas on the floodplain." A number of springs have been found.

•Rare species: Butternut trees (Juglans cinerea), flatspike sedge grass (Abildgaardia ovata) and bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii).

•Invasive species: Multiflora rose, wineberry, Japanese stilt grass and Japanese honeysuckle.

•History: The remains of a mill that produced flint from quartz its workers extracted from a quarry have been found, as well as the foundation of an iron works that went out of business in the late 19th century.

The Maryland Park Service has a plan for the park's management, but I've a feeling you won't be hearing a big announcement anytime soon. Because of the steep contours, the park just can't handle a lot of visitors. Those who can find a parking space will be able to engage in "activities with low environmental impact," such as hiking ("non-motorized trail-based recreation,") nature photography, nature study and bird watching.

One gets the impression that, had the people who deeded the land to the state not designated it for recreation, the Department of Natural Resources might have declared it state forest, with no plan for public access or timbering — just a big patch of restored, pre-colonial wilderness with a river running through it.

Public lands are great; we need more of them left to us, then left alone.

Dan Rodricks' column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. He is the host of Midday on WYPR, 88.1 FM. His email is dan.rodricks@baltsun.com.