Shark Teeth!

We finally made it out shark tooth hunting!  Since it was after Memorial Day, we went to Purse Park which is (Quiz!):
A Free
B Uncrowded
C Jelly fish free
D Farther away
E All of the above.

I knew that the answer was E because I've been there before.  It's pretty far off the beaten track and the beach itself is in a tidal part of the Patapsco river (which is why there are no jelly fish, but lots of sea shells).

If you aren't familiar with the area, we were on the Maryland side (in the shade!) looking across at Mount Vernon, Virginia (home of George Washington).

What I didn't know was that they must use these back roads to train people who paint lines on the road. Or, possibly, they really like beer here.

For the last half hour of the trip we were quite amused at the weird, wandering, never quite parallel lines.
 
What I also did not know was that the fossils here appear to be twice as old as the fossils at our usual spot.  According to the park service, these shark teeth come from the Aquia formation, from about 60 million years ago - you know, right about the time the asteroid hit.

Also, I left my phone in the car (accidentally), so I missed getting pictures of  us actually finding the fossils.  But find them we did! And I was happy to find my phone still in the car!


We were only there for an hour and a half, but this was our largest haul of fossils ever: 241!

We ended up with 123 teeth, 98 ray plates, 5 bone fragments, and 13 turtellias (like long snails).




And, if that wasn't enough to make it a red letter day,  on the way home, Blue Streak hit 100k!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the road photos are courtesy of Klenda (I didn't take them while driving!) and that there are some downsides to Purse Park besides the distance.

I would not recommend going there with young kids because the path to the beach, while a lovely hike, ends in a fairly steep... well, somewhere between a slope and a drop.  Older kids love the challenge, but it would be a nightmare with a toddler or baby, especially if you were also trying to carry anything.

Also, the beach disappears completely at high tide, so check the tide charts before you go!