Living in Rock Hall in Kent County, and with the time and wherewithal to explore during these long Covid-ridden months, Janice and I have been making weekly driving trips to points hither and yon on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Delaware.

Armed with cameras, iPhones, binoculars, and a DeLorme map book and fortified with a picnic lunch and Larabars, we’ve poked around wildlife refuges and management areas, numerous public parks, county seats and incorporated towns, public boat ramps, and several communities that lie where the road ends.  

Wildlife areas include Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge near Smyrna, Del., Blackwater NWR south of Cambridge in Dorchester County, Idylwild Wildlife Management Area near Federalsburg, Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area in Queen Anne’s County, LeCompte WMA near Vienna, and Pickering Creek Audubon Center near Easton. Federal and state parks include Cape Henlopen near Lewes, Del., Tuckahoe, Adkins Arboretum, Elk Neck, Martinak, Assateague Island, Janes Island, Shad Landing, and Milburn Landing.

We snapped a photo of each town hall in all 62 incorporated town in the nine Eastern Shore counties—from Salisbury (pop. 32,800) to Galestown (pop. 138).

Public boat ramps are everywhere, from highly scenic to strictly utilitarian. Some are in parks and others in scruffy downtowns. Often nearby are elegant sailboats, expensive yachts, dinghies, daysailers, duckboats, and deadrises. We brushed against gated marinas and wrinkled our noses at public docks stacked with overly-pungent crab traps.

“End-of-the-road” communities are modest waterfront towns that you almost can’t get to from here—towns where you sense you’re being observed from when you drive in to when you leave. These include Elliott Island, Rumbley (more peeler tanks than homes), Deal Island, Wenona, Nanticoke, Honga, Hoopersville, Crocheron, Wingate, and Crapo. Many homes are dilapidated or abandoned and yards fill with water often. These historic waterman communities are under acute economic and environmental stress, but persist through adversity.

Our drives often include passage on the three year-round free ferries—at Whitehaven and Upper Ferry on the Wicomico River below Salisbury, and at Woodland, Del., crossing the Nanticoke River near Seaford and Laurel—and the summer-only Oxford-Bellevue ferry across the Tred Avon River. The ferry at Whitehaven has been operated continuously since 1688.

Three favorite spots:

• The mural tucked behind the tidy little Harriet Tubman museum at 424 Race Street in Cambridge, Dorchester County. This is NOT the complicated mural that honors Cambridge’s Black community on Rte. 50 at the eastern end of the Choptank River bridge.
• The loblolly grove next to the lake at Tuckahoe State Park, Caroline County, with an abundance of picnic tables, lots of shade, and cooling breezes you can count on in the summer heat.
• The little rise that’s shaded by an ancient cedar tree in Martinak State Park near Denton that overlooks Watts Creek where it enters the Choptank River.

Three favorite views:

• From the high bluff on Turkey Point on Elk Neck, Cecil County, looking south way down Chesapeake Bay toward Betterton and Aberdeen Proving Ground. The bluff with its lighthouse is about a mile walk from the parking lot.
• From Bestpitch Bridge, Dorchester County, across the marshes. The bridge itself has been closed to traffic, but no one minds if you walk across it.
• From Cape Henlopen, in Lewes, Del., across the mouth of Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ. To hike around the cape takes an hour-plus, with hard sand much of the way. This is a prime outing for winter because the cape is closed during the late spring/early summer nesting season for Piping plovers.

Three favorite drives:

• South from Vienna to cross the marshes to Elliott Island, Dorchester County, and back.
• Along the various and sundry rural roads that crisscross the Maryland/Delaware state line from the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal at Chesapeake City in Cecil County to Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon’s stone survey markers (circa 1764) near Mardela Springs in Wicomico County. Look for Mud Mill Pond about halfway.
• Circling the Raymond, Shearness, and Bear Swamp pools at Bombay Hook.

There are hundreds of scenic and historic places to poke into on the Eastern Shore and Delaware! We have been fortunate to be able make these weekly day trips … to get out of our house … escape the opiate of the internet … spot migrating birds … take in some local history … talk (masked and at a distance) to a waterman or a town manager… watch the seasons change … re-visit favorite spots … engage in long conversations … appreciate the great beauty of our part of the state and country … and recharge for the unavoidable stresses of these complicated times. 

Cover photo: Dock and boat ramps, Shad Landing State Park, Worcester County.
All photos: Gren Whitman