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We decided to take a vacation down to the Solomon's to celebrate our anniversary with a whole bunch of fossil hunting. For our first time out to the area, I'd call the trip a resounding success! We managed to visit the Calvert Cliffs State Park, Matoaka Beach, Cove Point & also attempted to visit Flag Ponds though the park was almost always at capacity. Our goal was to focus on shark's teeth though we wound up finding a larger array of non-shark material instead. Perhaps a reflection of the large influx of new to the hobby collectors focusing heavily on teeth? Overall, my impressions on the locations we visited/tried to visit Calvert Cliffs State Park Certainly my favorite location speaking to the overall experience. Taking the red trail (avoid the service road route, same distance but a much harsher up and down hike) gives you a gorgeous scenic 1.8mi hike through salt marshes and wetlands until you hit the strip of beach with cliff exposures The water here was clear with no jellyfish, algae or jagged rocks - such a refreshing dip when i'd take a break from beachcombing Collecting directly under the cliffs is dangerous/ill-advised as landslides do happen fairly often. While choosing to do so is at your own risk, there are many exposures and recent cliff falls to collect from I spent my time chasing after a "giant scallop" - after scouting around a bit I managed to hit the jackpot by carefully digging a couple of well preserved 5-7" scallops out of the sandy cliff falls Matoaka Beach I'd call Matoaka a solid #2, the diversity of inverts we found was impressive but we also ran into a ton of bugs on the beach along with a shore full of jellyfish which made the visit ever so slightly miserable Very crowded with a good portion of folks sifting for teeth, I spoke with a few people along the shore and most had maybe one or two teeth to show for a couple of hours of searching - knowing that I spent my time searching the shore for invert material instead There were a couple of cliff exposures along the north end of the beach, though most of what I could poke at was overly chalky and would instantly disintegrate including an almost intact ecphora Flag Ponds Calling flag ponds overcrowded would be an understatement, we visited the park 3 times on 2 different days only for it to be full. I was told there was a line of cars the moment the park opened at 9am for them to hit capacity around 9:30. Bit of a shame but good to know for the future Cove Point We were lucky to have a close friend living within the cove point community whom allowed us access to the stretch of beach there Being a private beach, Cove Point had the largest amount of fossil material available for collecting along the shorelines including an abundance of bone fragments, crab claws and ray plates The weekend's haul, cleaned up and drying - prep was easier than I expected, especially on the scallops which wound up being a lot less fragile than I expected (100% thought one or two would break on the hike out of CCSP) Cliff exposure at CCSP The fall I was prodding at, corner of the scallop is visible on the right Gorgeous molds in-situ Freshly pulled from the fall - Chesapecten Nefrens Total tripmakers - more Chesapecten Nefrens after cleanup, 2 with both valves one split in two Mystery object - iron concretion or some sort of trace burrow?

Hello all, ToothMan here. This is my first trip report! I just joined this great forum. Stumbled upon it the other day. I have only been collecting about a year, and mostly fossilized sharks teeth at that. I also collect ray plates, I have one porpoise tooth, two crocodile teeth, some crab claw fossils, mostly marine creatures but focus mainly on shark teeth. I'm looking forward to expanding my searches for more than just teeth. Here is a link https://imgur.com/gallery/CO2q2gg to an imgur gallery from my most recent trip. Trip report below! I have some great teeth in my collection but wanted to report on my best finds to date, which ocurred over the past two days. I had some exceptional luck, paired with a keen eye, resulting in my first two Megalodon teeth ever found. I live in Solomon's, Md, and frequent some of the same sites I'm sure some of you do. Those being Calvert Cliffs, Brownies beach, flag ponds, etc. I also hunt Cove point a lot. My grandparents have a house down there so I frequent that beach often. Ive had my best finds so far there over the past two days. Last night I was there at low tide around 10:30 and found my first Megalodon tooth! I was ecstatic! I didnt think you could find those here. I thought they were mostly at calvert cliffs but I guess some wash down. I found a bunch of smaller teeth as well. Then today, I went back around noon for low tide again. Did my usual walk up to the point, picking up a bunch of small teeth along the way couple with a few hemi's here and there. I walked around past the lightouse and began finding some really nice mako's! I absolutely love finding mako teeth. Found some in the waves crashing and even up at the high tide line. The water,was still a little cold today but bearable. I wore shorts and sandals and took my sandals off, walking thru knee deep water one way searching, and up on the beach looking on the way back. I went home, happy with these finds. But I decided to return around 5 even though the tide was coming back in and I didnt expect to find much. But boy was I wrong. By this point it was really windy and the waves were really large, crashing and moving material all over the place. This is good as it turns up more stuff, but its harder to collect. You have to be quick. I felt like the karate kid snatching a fly out of my trainers hand diving in to grab teeth I had just spotted before they were swept away by the surf! Many were lost that I couldnt grab quick enough. I was picking up quite a few teeth though, a bunch of makos and some nice hemi's, when I saw a huge mako! A wave had just crashed on it, I let it recede, spotted ir again, and snatched it up before another wave could sweep it away. I had been out for hours now, and was really happy with my finds. I decided to take one last walk around the point and then I saw my second meg ever sticking up out of the sand. Only the top gum line was exposed and my heart jumped as I knew exactly what it was and it looked big! I scooped it up out of the sand and cleaned the barnacles off it. I was and am so happy! Never thought id be finding Megalodon teeth. Ive had the fossil hunting bug for about two years now. It really is addicting. Happy hunting, all. -ToothMan

Now that the final fossil hunt of 2018 is over, it's safe to make a recap of this incredible year. This year is so special. Fossil Hunting has developed into my favorite thing in the world. From uncertain 5 tooth hunts to euphoria inducing 200 tooth hunts, 2018 had it all. I was introduced to this forum as well! Thank you all you wonderful people for helping me amass knowledge, teaching me of civility and ways to express myself, and letting me have fun and drool over other's awesome fossils! My tooth spotting skills have improved, very much, and so has my knowledge. Only a couple of big teeth so far, but a meg next year right ladies and gentlemen?! This is a recap of my posts this year, Enjoy.