patelinho7 Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Hi everyone, A family friend asked me for advice on where to take their kids (around the DC area) who are into marine biology for some fossil hunting fun. I immediately thought of Calvert Cliffs since that’s the location that I went to the most as a kid. I always went to the state park even though it had limited success at times. I figured it’s a great place for kids, there’s a beach, a solid chance at finding some teeth, and not too much difficulty or danger. However, I am asking if anyone here has any advice or updates on how the state park beach or Flag Ponds is doing. Are the yields acceptable (for kids), is the water quality alright (bacteria, jellyfish), are there any other issues to be aware of? I haven’t been in years, I’m sure it’s changed very much. If you have any other suggestions for suitable locations for kids in the DMV (DC, MD, VA), I’m all ears. I already provided them with a few others, such as dinosaur park. I am trying to balance decent fossil yield with safety and family-friendly-ness (for example, flag ponds still has a decent beach to enjoy if fossil hunting isn’t working out) which is quite challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bockryan Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 10 hours ago, patelinho7 said: Hi everyone, A family friend asked me for advice on where to take their kids (around the DC area) who are into marine biology for some fossil hunting fun. I immediately thought of Calvert Cliffs since that’s the location that I went to the most as a kid. I always went to the state park even though it had limited success at times. I figured it’s a great place for kids, there’s a beach, a solid chance at finding some teeth, and not too much difficulty or danger. However, I am asking if anyone here has any advice or updates on how the state park beach or Flag Ponds is doing. Are the yields acceptable (for kids), is the water quality alright (bacteria, jellyfish), are there any other issues to be aware of? I haven’t been in years, I’m sure it’s changed very much. If you have any other suggestions for suitable locations for kids in the DMV (DC, MD, VA), I’m all ears. I already provided them with a few others, such as dinosaur park. I am trying to balance decent fossil yield with safety and family-friendly-ness (for example, flag ponds still has a decent beach to enjoy if fossil hunting isn’t working out) which is quite challenging. Flag ponds is great, just make sure they pay attention to the tides. My constant advice is also not to be afraid to really get down in the sand and look closely, you look a little silly but the teeth there are pretty small and you will miss 90%+ of them if you're standing up while looking. I find surface collecting produces better results there but I'm sure sifting would produce some teeth as well. Jellyfish are a concern (ish) at certain parts of the season, but not a major one. Purse is good as well, tides there are doubly important and you do have to be careful of the cliffs/ledges now, as the beach is very narrow, although it's long so I've never had much trouble with crowding. And you definitely will find teeth, they're everywhere, to an almost comical degree. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patelinho7 Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 21 hours ago, bockryan said: Flag ponds is great, just make sure they pay attention to the tides. My constant advice is also not to be afraid to really get down in the sand and look closely, you look a little silly but the teeth there are pretty small and you will miss 90%+ of them if you're standing up while looking. I find surface collecting produces better results there but I'm sure sifting would produce some teeth as well. Jellyfish are a concern (ish) at certain parts of the season, but not a major one. Purse is good as well, tides there are doubly important and you do have to be careful of the cliffs/ledges now, as the beach is very narrow, although it's long so I've never had much trouble with crowding. And you definitely will find teeth, they're everywhere, to an almost comical degree. Do you know anything about how the water quality is doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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