Terrapin Nature Park — Attraction in Kent Island

Gunfire at a Beautiful little park in Maryland overlooking the Bay Bridge. I've been there many times, but my last visit was scary and strange. I was there with friends on Sunday August 4th, 2019 a beautiful day, along with 100 other people along the beach. Gunshots started being fired about 30 minutes after we arrived. Keep in mind this is the morning America woke up to 2 Mass Shootings across our nation, and on a Sunday. At first it was a few light gauge shots being fired, then it got louder and louder. People on the beach had no where to go and started looking around for a Park Ranger or somebody. I know we were looking around to see where we could hide if need be, we had no where to go.The Ranger had walked down the beach after we first arrived, but after the gunfire started there was No Sign of him. People were nervous and just wanted to see someone of authority with the park to have some reassurance of safety. People started talking to each other and were nervous. One guy walked up to the path and came back to tell us that they were told it was coming from the private property boarding the park. After that the gunfire got more aggressive and louder. I then called the Queen Anne County Sheriffs Dept. They said the Deputies had just left and that the people of the private property were just finishing up and that there was nothing more they could do. Well they didn't finish up for another 1 hour and after the visit by the Deputies the shots seemed to get closer. ( we were down the very end of the beach) It got very aggressive with different gauges of guns and patterns. Let me say, it was not clay shooting or target practice. It was aggressive gun behavior. To remind you this was a day after a national mass shootings. They couldn't just take the Sunday off in memory of the poor Americans who had lost there lives the day before due to gun violence? So that's it for me. Message received. So if you go to visit this park and the wonderful neighbors that border the Terrapin Nature Park start there shooting you will know what it is..FYI- The neighbors have a lot of property as seen on Google Earth, they could be shooting on the other side of the acreage and not right up on the good citizens there enjoying the people's park that our tax dollars pay to upkeep and pay salary's. ...

If you're looking for a beautiful place for a long nature walk or just a short one to enjoy the natural sites of the Chesapeake Bay and estuaries, this certainly is a great spot to do so! You can take a long looping trail that totals around 2-3 miles, passing through forested areas, estuaries, tidal marshes, and eventually ends up along a beach facing the open Chesapeake Bay and Bay Bridge. The park also connects to the local Cross-Island trail, which is a 7+ mile paved trail that heads east across the island. If you would like to enjoy the sites, but do not want to walk as much, there are shorter gravel trails as well (shortest walk to the beach is about .25-.5 miles maximum). All trails through the park are runner and biker friendly. Would not recommend roller blades unless you stay on the Cross-Island trail, which is paved.

The beach here itself is very long (but short in terms of distance to the water), with a decent amount of space for visitors to sunbathe and swim, even on busy summer weekends and holidays. There are porta-potties scattered around the park, but do tend to be a little dirty during busy summer months (what porta-potties aren't?). If you would like to fish, there are also designated spots where you can do just that. Sometimes seaweed does wash up during the late summer due to storms/dredging, but I cannot rule that as a downside because that will always be an occurrence along the Chesapeake Bay in the summer.

Only real downside to this park that I can think of is that the parking lot will fill up fast on busier days and visitors will have to resort to parking along the...

20211019 stopped by today and the park was closed. There was road construction in front of the entrance that turned the road into a 1 lane road. Not sure why the park is closed though.

I stopped by this park on my way to Ocean City. This park is pretty unique. It is located at the exit at Northeast end of the Bay Bridge. I didn't know what to expect asides from having a view of the water. To my surprise, this Nature Park has a Meadows, Wetland, Marsh land, Beach and trails. It appears to be quite popular for walkers and cyclists as well as dog owners. The trails are not paved, and the smaller trail loop is about 2.18 miles from the parking lot. The larger loop, I believe, is 1.2 miles longer. There are other trails that go outside the park property. The beach is long but not wide. Some people would let their dogs run off leash on the beach, but I believe all dogs must be on leash. To my surprise, there are a lot of portable toilets throughout the park. There were 2 in the parking lot. One didn't have a lot on the door, and the other had urine all over the seat and...