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She sells seashells
May. 8th, 2010 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melannenFirst off, and most importantly, THANK YOU SO MUCH to whoever bought paid time for this community! Anybody have any suggestions on what we can do to use our new paid features?
And I am going to post some pictures. Beach pictures! Two weekends ago, I took my first trip to the beach of the year! Yes, it was a bit early for swimming in my area, but that's okay, because we went to the Calvert Cliffs. The Calvert Cliffs are an area in Southern Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay above the Patuxent River in which the coast is lined with fifteen-to-fifty foot high red and gray clay cliffs, which is quite unusual along a coast that's mostly salt marsh and barrier islands. What makes it even cooler is - well, two things. One, that coastal Calvert Country, while it does have lots of rich peoples' houses and an infestation of marinas, is not nearly as commercialized and overbuilt as, oh, 90% of the coastline along here. There are still lots of little towns that are mostly hundred-year-old tiny summer homes from when a shortline railroad ran here from the cities; there are still undeveloped areas and shady country roads and tiny beaches nobody knows; and there's history there - colonial history going back to the 17th century up to the nuclear power plant, and pre-colonial history going back and back and back.
The other cool thing is that as the cliffs erode into the ocean, 30-millon-year-old marine fossils rain down on to the beach. When you go beachcombing here, even the clamshells are unimaginably ancient. The first American fossil to be named was found along the Calvert Cliffs, and they're still an amazing place for amateur fossil-hunters. My family's been going since I was seven, but this was my first trip for years.
( Many small photos and a lot of text about Calvert Cliffs State Park under cut )
( And some specimens of fossils we found that weekend )
And I am going to post some pictures. Beach pictures! Two weekends ago, I took my first trip to the beach of the year! Yes, it was a bit early for swimming in my area, but that's okay, because we went to the Calvert Cliffs. The Calvert Cliffs are an area in Southern Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay above the Patuxent River in which the coast is lined with fifteen-to-fifty foot high red and gray clay cliffs, which is quite unusual along a coast that's mostly salt marsh and barrier islands. What makes it even cooler is - well, two things. One, that coastal Calvert Country, while it does have lots of rich peoples' houses and an infestation of marinas, is not nearly as commercialized and overbuilt as, oh, 90% of the coastline along here. There are still lots of little towns that are mostly hundred-year-old tiny summer homes from when a shortline railroad ran here from the cities; there are still undeveloped areas and shady country roads and tiny beaches nobody knows; and there's history there - colonial history going back to the 17th century up to the nuclear power plant, and pre-colonial history going back and back and back.
The other cool thing is that as the cliffs erode into the ocean, 30-millon-year-old marine fossils rain down on to the beach. When you go beachcombing here, even the clamshells are unimaginably ancient. The first American fossil to be named was found along the Calvert Cliffs, and they're still an amazing place for amateur fossil-hunters. My family's been going since I was seven, but this was my first trip for years.
( Many small photos and a lot of text about Calvert Cliffs State Park under cut )
( And some specimens of fossils we found that weekend )
