Day Trip to the Delaware Bay; Pickering Beach, Delaware

This weekend my wife and I decided to take a day trip to Dover, Delaware. We did not plan to visit any specific sites in Dover; instead, we decided to just drive there and see what caught our attention.

We traveled along U.S. 50/301 through Maryland and crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which spans across the Chesapeake Bay and offered a great view of the bay and the many cargo vessels that navigate it. We crossed into Delaware, passing through mostly rural crop land with occasional small towns, most only one or two intersections in depth.



We entered Dover via Rt. 8 around 3:00 pm. Dover is characteristic of many older small and medium sized towns throughout the east and midwest. Upon reaching the town limits, we were greeted with the usual big-box stores, chain restaurants, and fast-food drive-throughs, followed by the historic downtown. Much of historic downtown Dover appeared to be well maintained, with its tree-lined boulevards, wide brick sidewalks and two and three-story buildings. Unfortunately, almost all the businesses in town were closed, although we were aware of that possibility since it was a Sunday.

To salvage the day trip, we picked a random beach on our GPS; Pickering Beach, located on the Delaware Bay. The only public parking available was a pull-off on the side of the road large enough to accommodate two cars. Off to the side is a placard explaining some of the marine life to be found in the Delaware Bay, including the horseshoe crab, which has experienced declining numbers in the bay area.

We accessed the beach through a narrow public walkway in between two private beach houses. As soon as we stepped onto the beach, we encountered a dead horseshoe crab, and a few away feet lay a empty plastic bottle.The beach was dominated by large numbers of dead horseshoe crabs, and man made trash was found in abundance.

One of many dead horseshoe crabs found on the beach, was well human trash that was far too common along the shore.

Trash from another era. Because of its location, this tire is submerged during high tide. Examining it more closely, with its large white wall and narrow tread that was common during the 50s and 60s, this tire has likely been in the bay before I was born.

The beach did have some encouraging signs however. During low tide, we observed an abundance of freshwater snails slowly making their way upon the small rocks and pebbles back into the bay. Large amounts of what appeared to be some type of coral also lined the rock bed during low tide. While walking along the sand, we almost stepped on a baby crab, no larger than a $1 coin, walking along the beach. We stopped dead in our tracks and so did the baby crab, who opened his claw and stood his ground! We marveled at this for a few minutes, but then realized that the little crab was vulnerable to predation by the seagulls and other large birds in the area, so we moved on so the crab could continue on his way. Satisfied with what we had seen at the beach, we headed back for Northern Virginia.

Thousands of these freshwater snails were found along the beach during low tide.

Coral? This grew in abundance upon the rocks along the bay shore.

A very brave baby crab we almost stepped on while walking along the beach. Barley the size of a $1 coin, he stood his ground, poised to defend his turf with his deadly claw!