A guide to our favorite shelling beaches.
Die-hard shell seekers can take away more than a sun-kissed glow from a visit to the shore this summer.
Back Bay Natural WildlifeRefuge, Virginia Beach Visit at full moon and low tide to find the caramel-colored shell of a scotch bonnet snail. First Landing State Park,Virginia Beach This park is a great place to find the state’s shell—the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. Here you’ll also find the often-spiky blood ark and the slightly more pleasant jingle shell. Kiptopeke State Park,Cape Charles Clams are the name of the game on this part of the Eastern Shore.Head to the southern beach for the best selection. Tom’s Cove Park,Chincoteague Island The beaches here offer great whelking—you’ll find intact knobbed, channeled and lightning varieties of sea snails. York River State Park, Williamsburg Search the bluffs beside Fossil Beach for our state fossil, the ancient scallop Chesapecten jeffersonius.
