Southern Maryland — the region made up of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties — sits where the Patuxent and Potomac rivers meet the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States. It’s an area with deep historical layers, from the state’s first colonial settlement in 1634 to Civil War prison camps and Abraham Lincoln assassination escape routes, plus fossil beaches that expose marine life from the Miocene epoch. Here are the best things to do across the region.
Calvert Cliffs State Park
The towering bluffs of Calvert Cliffs stretch roughly 30 miles along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline in Calvert County, exposing sedimentary rock formations from the Miocene epoch — roughly 8 to 20 million years old. Three geological formations (the Calvert, Choptank, and St. Marys) are layered in the cliffs, each progressively younger as you move south. Fossils of more than 600 species have been documented here, including shark teeth (megalodon teeth among them), whale bones, ray fragments, and marine shells. Visitors can hunt for fossils on the beach — climbing on the cliffs themselves is prohibited due to the risk of collapse, which has caused fatalities over the years. The park covers more than 1,000 acres of forest and wetlands, with a roughly 1.8-mile service road hike from the parking lot to the beach. Best collecting is at low tide and after storms. The park is typically open March through mid-November; the day-use fee is $5 per vehicle for Maryland residents.
Calvert Marine Museum
Located in Solomons at the southern tip of Calvert County, the Calvert Marine Museum focuses on three themes: regional paleontology, the estuarine ecology of the tidal Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay, and local maritime history. Indoor exhibits include fossil collections (including a megalodon skeleton replica), aquariums, wooden boat displays, and maritime art. Outdoors, the museum maintains a river otter habitat, a boat basin, and a reconstructed salt marsh. The museum also houses the Drum Point Lighthouse, a restored screwpile cottage lighthouse with early 20th-century furnishings and year-round guided tours — one of only three surviving Chesapeake Bay screwpile lighthouses.
Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary
Mallows Bay in Nanjemoy (Charles County) is home to the largest collection of historic shipwrecks in the Western Hemisphere. The bay and surrounding Potomac River waters contain nearly 200 shipwrecks spanning from the Revolutionary War era through the 20th century. The most prominent are over 100 wooden steamships built for the U.S. Emergency Fleet during World War I — constructed at more than 40 shipyards in 17 states as a response to German U-boat attacks. The ships never saw wartime action; after the war they were brought to the Potomac for scrap salvage, eventually burned to the waterline, and left to settle in the shallow bay. Over the decades, silt filled the hulls, seeds took root, and the wrecks became “floating forests” — ecologically rich islands that now host ospreys, bald eagles, herons, beavers, and fish.
In 2019, NOAA designated the area as the Mallows Bay–Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary, Maryland’s first national marine sanctuary and the first new sanctuary designation in nearly two decades. The best way to explore is by kayak; guided tours run from roughly May through October (verify current operators and pricing). Mallows Bay Park has a boat launch, and wrecks are best viewed at low tide. Be cautious of submerged metal — rusty ship remains lie just below the waterline, especially at high tide.
Historic St. Mary’s City
On the site of Maryland’s first settlement and original colonial capital (1634), Historic St. Mary’s City is an outdoor living-history museum in St. Mary’s County. Exhibits include a replica tall ship (the Maryland Dove), a Woodland Indian hamlet depicting Yaocomaco life, a working tobacco plantation with heritage-breed livestock, and the reconstructed Town Center with a colonial inn, chapel, and other buildings. Costumed interpreters lead hands-on programs about 17th-century life. The site also includes the original 1676 brick State House foundations and an active archaeological program — excavations here have been ongoing for decades and continue to produce significant finds.
John Wilkes Booth Escape Route
After assassinating President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth fled south through Southern Maryland — specifically through Charles County — on a 12-day escape that ended when he was shot and killed by Union soldiers at Garrett’s farm in Virginia on April 26. The escape route passed through several Southern Maryland locations, including the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd in Waldorf (Charles County), where Booth’s broken leg was set. The Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum, open for tours on select days from April through November, preserves the farmhouse and tells the story of the assassination conspiracy. The broader John Wilkes Booth Escape Route can be followed as a self-guided driving tour through Charles and St. Mary’s counties, with historical markers at key stops.
Note: the Surratt House Museum, Booth’s first stop after the assassination, is located in Clinton in Prince George’s County — technically outside the three-county Southern Maryland region, though it’s the natural starting point for tracing the escape route south.
Point Lookout State Park
At the southernmost tip of St. Mary’s County, where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay, Point Lookout State Park occupies over 1,000 acres on a peninsula with a dual identity: it’s both a recreational park with beaches, fishing, and camping, and a sobering Civil War site. During the war, Union forces established Camp Hoffman here as a prisoner-of-war camp. Over its roughly two years of operation (1863–1865), more than 52,000 Confederate prisoners passed through — at peak capacity the camp held 12,000 to 20,000 men simultaneously in a compound designed for 10,000. Conditions were notoriously harsh: inadequate shelter (all prisoners were housed in tents), contaminated water, overcrowding, and exposure. Nearly 4,000 prisoners died, and a mass grave with over 3,300 identified remains is marked by a stone obelisk.
The on-site Civil War Museum and Marshland Nature Center tell the full story with exhibits and artifacts. The park also preserves Point Lookout Light, an 1830 lighthouse. Recreational options include a 710-foot fishing pier, swimming beach (Memorial Day through Labor Day), boat launch, and 143 wooded campsites. Note: check current availability before planning, as the campground and museum have periodically been closed for infrastructure repairs in recent seasons.
Piney Point Lighthouse Museum & Historic Park
The Piney Point Lighthouse in St. Mary’s County, built in 1836, is often cited as the oldest lighthouse on the Potomac River. The six-acre museum and park complex includes the lighthouse itself, a pier, kayak launch, boardwalk, picnic area, and a small sandy beach (for relaxing, not swimming or fishing). Maritime exhibits display historical wooden boats from the Chesapeake Bay region. Offshore lies Maryland’s first Historic Shipwreck Dive Preserve, centered on the wreck of U-1105, a German submarine nicknamed “Black Panther” that operated in the Atlantic during World War II. The U-boat was surrendered after the war, used in U.S. Navy testing, and intentionally sunk in the Potomac in 1949. Certified divers can explore the wreck with a free permit.
Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center
Located in Solomons (Calvert County), Annmarie Garden is a 30-acre sculpture park featuring more than 30 works on loan from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art, displayed along a quarter-mile paved walking path through a wooded setting on St. John Creek. The Arts Building hosts rotating exhibits and seasonal events — including the annual Garden In Lights holiday display and an ornament show featuring work by regional artists. The park also runs family programs, summer camps, and community events year-round. There’s a gift shop and café on site.
Patuxent River Wine Trail
Southern Maryland’s wine scene is concentrated along the Patuxent River corridor, primarily in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties. The region’s warm summers, mild winters, and well-drained soils support varieties including Chardonnay, Vidal Blanc, and Cabernet Franc. Several vineyards offer tastings with views of the surrounding countryside and, at some locations, the Chesapeake Bay. Running Hare Vineyard west of Prince Frederick and Cove Point Winery near Lusby are among the better-known stops on the Patuxent Wine Trail. Most wineries are open for tastings on weekends; check individual hours before visiting.
Crabbing and Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay blue crab is central to Maryland’s culinary identity, and Southern Maryland offers some of the best recreational crabbing access in the state. The Maryland recreational crabbing season typically runs from April 1 through December 15, though regulations (including license requirements, catch limits, and gear rules) change annually — check the Maryland Department of Natural Resources website before heading out. You can crab from public piers, shoreline access points, or by boat throughout Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties. Fishing for rockfish (striped bass), catfish, perch, and other species is also popular year-round, with boat launches and charter services available at Solomons, Ridge, and other waterfront communities.
Historic Sotterley Plantation
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Historic Sotterley in Hollywood (St. Mary’s County) is the only remaining Tidewater plantation in Maryland that is fully interpreted and open to the public. The property includes a 1703 manor house, nearly 100 acres of fields, gardens, and Patuxent River shoreline, and a collection of outbuildings including a circa-1830 slave cabin, a smokehouse, and a 19th-century schoolhouse. Guided tours of the manor house and grounds cover both the plantation’s colonial history and the enslaved people who lived and worked there. Specialty tours are also available. The grounds are open seasonally — check current hours.
Patuxent River Naval Air Museum
Located in Lexington Park (St. Mary’s County) near the gates of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, this museum is dedicated to the history of naval aviation research, development, testing, and evaluation — the primary mission of NAS Pax River since World War II. Indoor exhibits cover weapons systems, naval aviation in space exploration, engine and propulsion technology, and aviation art. The outdoor aircraft park displays more than 20 naval aircraft. Flight simulators are available. The museum is free to visit (donations accepted) and includes a gift shop.
Southern Maryland is roughly an hour’s drive from Washington, D.C., and Annapolis is an easy day trip from the region. For more Chesapeake Bay destinations, see things to do in Chesapeake, Virginia.
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