Here is the start of the St Michaels Nature Trail. This 1.3 mile trail skirts the western edge of the scenic town of St. Michaels, Maryland, which was built on the site of a 17th century Anglican church that eventually lent the settlement its name. Now the town is a popular tourist destination, buoyed—pun intended—by the presence of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and its historic artifacts and vessels.
The path starts on South Talbot Street just north of Heathington Farm Road. From there, the trail runs northwest through a dedicated parking lot (located across from the Bay Hundred community swimming pool) before coursing through the woods past some of the town's residences. A short covered wooden bridge takes trail users across San Domingo Creek, which is a popular spot for fishing. The nature trail then travels past a horse farm and cemetery before reaching its end at Bradley Park on Railroad Avenue.
The trail occupies a portion of an abandoned Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway (later Baltimore and Eastern Railroad) corridor that originally stretched from the small community of Claiborne on the Chesapeake Bay to Ocean City on the Atlantic Ocean. As a great example of successful co-use, the trail shares its route with overhead electric power lines. In the near future, St. Michaels plans to extend the nature trail farther north to Perry Cabin Park, while a new rail-trail is planned for a portion of the same right-of-way 10 miles east of St. Michaels in the town of Easton.
Parking for the St. Michaels Nature Trail can be found at a dedicated lot off South Talbot Street located directly across from the Bay Hundred swimming pool. At the trail's northern end, park at the lot for Bradley Park on Railroad Avenue.
* BYOP
