Southern

Southern Maryland covers the three-county peninsula between the Patuxent and Potomac rivers, the long tidewater country running south from the Capitol Region suburbs to Point Lookout where the Potomac meets the Chesapeake. The terrain is flat to gently rolling coastal plain — tobacco-and-corn farmland in the interior, cliffs along the Calvert County shoreline (the Calvert Cliffs hold Miocene fossils, including shark teeth that wash onto the beach), tidal marsh and inlets at the southern tip. Three counties cover the region. Charles County holds La Plata and Waldorf (the largest commercial center); St. Mary’s County holds Lexington Park, Leonardtown, and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station; Calvert County holds Prince Frederick and Solomons. Sotterley Plantation, Historic St. Mary’s City (the original 1634 colonial capital of Maryland), and Point Lookout State Park concentrate the historical scenery; Calvert Cliffs State Park and Flag Ponds Nature Park handle the fossil-hunting and beach walks. Most trips here run colonial-history and tidewater-themed. Historic St. Mary’s City and the reconstructed 17th-century settlement anchor the historical itinerary; Solomons runs the sailing-and-seafood weekends; Calvert Cliffs draws fossil hunters at low tide; Point Lookout’s Civil War prison-camp history fills a southern-tip stop.