#calvert cliffs

Whhoooooey, folks, I spent the day going to the Flatlands (the Chesapeake Bay), hiking through a forest (Calvert Cliffs State Park) and swimming in water infested with stinging jellyfish (minor inconvenience). It was a BIG day. My son and his roommate accompanied us. K got to drive on the Washington beltway for the first time ever. Calvert Cliffs is just a neat, neat site, but hiking miles in temps like this is a challenge, even in the flatlands.

When we got almost to the end of the trail, and K could see the water and sand ahead, she was all wound up. We haven't had a family vacation since 2022, and she has been missing the beach very much. This year the Bay water, instead of the stinging cold we associate with the ocean around Ocean City, was unpleasantly warm. Like, warmer than body temps near the shore. I had pinned my hopes, during the long hike, on plunging into cold water and shedding body heat. T'was not to be.

Son did find three small fossil shark teeth. CC's claim to fame is the fossil hunting. The eponymous cliffs are crumbling away a bit at a time, and shedding fossils steadily. Roommate concentrated on herpetology; he chased the innumerable skinks around in the forest and caught one or two turtles from the wetlands for us to have a close look at. Apparently Common Musk turtles have an adult size smaller than my hand. I did not know there were such tiny turtles in the world.

Area Closed