# Calvert Cliffs State Park fossil beach: legal collecting field guide

Canonical page: https://lithomap.app/resources/field-trips/calvert-cliffs-state-park-maryland
Last access and rule review: September 18, 2026
Page purpose: Original LithoMap trip-planning reference for an explicitly authorized rock, mineral, or non-dinosaur fossil collecting destination.

## Direct answer

A Maryland state-park beach where fossil hunting is allowed in the open beach area while the eroding cliffs and ground beneath them remain permanently closed and illegal to collect.

## Location and material

- State: Maryland
- Area: Lusby, Maryland
- Category: Fossil collecting
- Collection status: Collecting allowed
- Expected material: Miocene shell fossils, Shark and ray teeth, Beach-worn fossil fragments

## Authorization

Maryland DNR explicitly allows fossil hunting on the open beach reached by the Red Trail. Climbing, walking beneath, or collecting under the cliffs is prohibited because of landslide danger.

## Access

The beach is reached by roughly a 1.8-mile trail each way. The park charges a day-use vehicle fee and operates under current park hours and capacity conditions.

## Tools, limits, and season

- Tools: The official page permits sieves and shovels for sifting beach sand. Tools never authorize approaching or digging into the cliffs.
- Limits: Collect only from the open beach and obey staff instructions, closures, wildlife protections, and any current quantity rule. An unusual vertebrate find should be left and reported.
- Season and current status: The park is day use, and shoreline width, weather, tides, heat, and storm damage vary. Verify park alerts, hours, fee, and beach access before travel.

## Conditions

- Stay entirely away from the cliff base and closed zones.
- Search loose beach material only.
- Do not excavate the cliff or a fresh fall.
- Leave unusual, associated, or scientifically important remains in place and notify staff.

## Geology

The cliffs expose Miocene marine sediment deposited roughly 10 to 20 million years ago.

Waves release and rework fossils onto the beach, so a loose find may be separated from its original bed.

## Field plan

1. Check park alerts and weather.
2. Plan for the round-trip hike and carry water.
3. Search the authorized open beach at a safe distance from cliffs.
4. Record a find without publishing a sensitive vertebrate location.
5. Ask park staff how to handle an unusual specimen.

## Safety

- Cliff collapse is sudden and potentially fatal; the closed area is not a collecting shortcut.
- The beach is unguarded and conditions change with tide and weather.
- Ticks, heat, slippery ground, and the return hike require preparation.

## Official sources

- Calvert Cliffs State Park — Maryland Department of Natural Resources: https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/southern/calvertcliffs.aspx
- Calvert Cliffs geology — Maryland Geological Survey: https://www.mgs.md.gov/geology/geology_tour/calvert_cliffs.html

This guide is not a permit, reservation, boundary survey, legal opinion, guarantee of access, or promise of a find. Open every official source again before travel. Current signs, closures, permits, claim boundaries, and staff instructions control.