Maryland Crab & Oyster Trail: Middle Eastern Shore
The Heart of the Bay
Maryland Crab & Oyster Trail: Middle Eastern Shore
The Heart of the Bay
The Heart of the Bay
On Maryland’s Middle Eastern Shore (or mid-shore), you’re in the Heart of Chesapeake Country, where locals depend upon the bay for their livelihoods, and fresh seafood is just a stone’s throw away.
Experience the Eastern Shore culture by sampling crabs and oysters, visiting oyster hatcheries and oyster festivals and taking a skipjack sailing tour. Engaging maritime museums help you explore the watermen’s heritage and the local's livelihoods and connection to the majestic Chesapeake Bay.
Drive the Chesapeake Country National Scenic Byway to tour picturesque and quaint waterfront towns like St. Michaels, Tilghman, and Cambridge, where you can find live crabs being loaded from boats to docks, sold at markets and then steamed fresh at waterfront restaurants and served at your table. It doesn’t get any fresher than that! As you visit restaurants along the Crab & Oyster Trail be sure to look for the “True Blue” symbol to support Maryland’s local crab industry. Click here for a list of establishments certified as “True Blue.”
The byway stitches together these towns and travels through expansive farmland, ripe with farm stands featuring luscious produce, where the fruits of the land compliment the bounty of the bay. Stop and pick up some fresh-picked corn, peaches or some green veggies.
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On “the shore” you’ll find casual traditional crab houses, like The Crab Claw in St. Michaels, Wylder Hotel’s Tickler’s Crab Shack in Tilghman Island and Soft and Salty Seafood in Cambridge. You’ll also find upscale dining at well-known restaurants like Oxford’s Robert Morris Inn, Suicide Bridge Restaurant in Hurlock or Harry’s Food & Spirits in Denton.
Check out a raw oyster bar in St. Michael’s or Easton. And there are plenty of seafood markets where you can buy and cook your own.
Get out on the water and take a skipjack tour from Tilghman Island or Cambridge to see oyster dredging first-hand. A variety of Watermen’s Heritage Tours provide an unsurpassed, up close experience where you can catch your own dinner - or at least see how it’s done.
Museums, Festivals, and Events
In the heart of Chesapeake Country, make sure to stop at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, where you can discover what it was like to live as a lighthouse keeper in an authentic “screwpile” style lighthouse, watch real historic boats being restored and try your hand at tonging for oysters. The museum offers interactive exhibits and tours aboard their buyboat, The Winnie Estelle. In Cambridge, The Richardson’s Maritime Museum has an extensive display of artifacts and models of historic fishing and crabbing vessels.
To tantalize your taste-buds, catch a seafood festival, like Cambridge’s Seafood Feast-i-Val in mid-August, the OysterFest at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels in late October, the Oyster Jam and Brew Festival in Tilghman’s Island in November, or a local Bull and Oyster Roast.
Want to get a behind-the-scenes look at how oysters are grown? Schedule a tour of the Horn Point Oyster Hatchery at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science in Cambridge. Discover their oyster restoration strategy and find out why oysters are so important to the Bay’s health.
Trip Tips
To tantalize your taste-buds, catch a seafood festival, like Cambridge’s Seafood Feast-i-Val, the Oyster Fest at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels in the fall, or the Oyster Jam and Brew Festival in Tilghman’s Island.
Take the scenic drive down MD 335 to Hoopers Island, which is really three islands with their authentic working watermen villages. The trip will feel a bit like going to another world. Travel through Fishing Creek and Hoopersville with the Chesapeake Bay on your right and the Honga River on your left.
Maryland Lore
Recreational crabbers catch crabs using a Bait, Pull and Net method - what locals call "chicken necking." The bait, often chicken necks, is tied to the end of a string and dropped into the water, typically less than 5 feet deep. When the line starts "walking away," the crabber slowly pulls it up. Once in sight, the crabber scoops up the crab with a rigid net on a pole.
