Mallows Bay, Nanjemoy, Maryland

There was a last-minute change of plans yesterday. The weather was cold and the sky was threatening, and so we opted to take a drive south instead of going into the city. Life always intrudes as well, and so we had quite a few errands to run along the way.

Mallows Bay is a Maryland state park, but it is also a ship junkyard and marine sanctuary.

I first read about The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay in this article from Amusing Planet. There are some great images there, taken from above, and so it's worth clicking on that link to get a better view of the bay and the ships there. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"Charles County operates Mallows Bay Park (1440 Wilson Landing Road in Nanjemoy, Maryland). This small park contains the graves of more than 230 United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation ships sunk in the river. Almost ninety were poorly constructed steamships built during World War I; in 1925 they were burned [to the waterline] and scuttled in the bay. Bethlehem Steel then built a salvage basin during World War II to recover metal from the abandoned ships. The ships form a reef that hosts an array of wildlife. A 0.8-mile trail loops around Mallows Bay Park and the salvage basin."

The clouds eventually gave way to the sunshine, and it ended up being a pretty day for a drive. It was about an hour south, and the last of the journey took us down a tree-lined street.

When we reached the park, we walked to the water's edge. Looking out across the expanse, one can see the wreckage of one of the vessels.

Zooming in, it's possible to see the tops of more of them.

There was a telescope located there, and it made it possible to see across the bay, but binoculars gave us an even better view. As you can see by the parking lot, the place was over run with visitors yesterday. (This also gives you a clue why we enjoy these off-the-wall places.)

There was an information kiosk behind me that included a map of the .8-mile hike through the surrounding woods.

It's hard to remember that we're basically in a junk yard here because the area is so beautiful.

When the path took us close to the water, we could find more sunken vessels.

As we walked along, we remarked on how different a hiking trail looks here from, say, the Oregon coast, where conifers rule the forest. Here, with a few very small exceptions, the trees are all deciduous.

The weather was chilly and there was a breeze, but it was still a pretty day.

There were a number of benches along the way where we could sit and take in our surroundings. Also, there were birds of prey flying overhead. You can see the fall color across the water in the image below.

As we neared the end of the loop, we came to a boat launch and a few small docks were some people were fishing.

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed back to the RV. We washed our bedding in the park laundromat, where there was a small cafe. And, heck, why not kill two birds with one stone? So we ordered a pizza, and sat eating it while we waited for time to run out on the laundry.

Today, we'll get back on our original schedule and make our way into the city to see the United States Capitol, the Library of Congress, and the Air & Space Museum. Then, we'll see how much our feet are hurting before deciding what to do with the rest of our day.

It is our last day in Washington, D.C. Tomorrow we will head to Assateague State Park in Berlin, Maryland. I read an article last year that named the best state parks in the United States. I highlighted all the names of the parks in my State Park Camping book, and this happens to be one of them.