We left at 6am on Saturday, I figured we'd do the furthest away first, and work backwards around the Chesapeake. We got to St. Michaels at 7:55am...5 minutes before opening. The Hoopers Straight Light was the first one we visited, and it was in immaculate shape, one of 3 surviving screwpile lights on the Bay.

It was a great time both days, the worst part was driving in the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore, it wasn't really that bad but after a day of driving interstates and country roads, it was a quick change. Having the only 24mpg 4 cylinder in the country didn't help either But anyways, I'll leave you with the pictures, within the next few days I'll be uploading complete albums from each light, with some views from the inside and from the top of some lights. I'll organize them and post a link to save bandwidth here on the site, so you don't have to sit through the entire page loading. I'll post the link on here or in the general forum when it's done. Enjoy! I resized and compressed the images a little for better load times.


Blackistone from the boat


Chesapeake Lightship, Inner Harbor, Baltimore


Seven Foot Knoll Light, Inner Harbor, Baltimore


USS Constellation, not part of the challenge but was pretty cool. Inner Harbor, Baltimore


Piney Point, Southern Maryland


Concord Point, Harve de Grace, MD


Turkey Point, Elk Neck State Park, MD

Point Lookout, Southern Maryland (My Favorite!)


From the top of Point Lookout, Chesapeake Bay to the left, Potomac River to the right.


Cove Point, Calvert County, MD (Still Active)


Hoopers Straight Light, St. Michaels, MD


Drum Point, Calvert County, MD


Fort Washington, MD (Active)


BIG Fresnel Lens on display inside Hoopers Straight (1st or 2nd order?)

Again I'll let everyone know when I get the albums up! Thanks for looking.

Great pics 06 !!!

More please !!!

Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Larry

Love the photos! Thanks for shareing!

Awesome photos & looks like you had great fall weather too!
Thanks for sharing & look forward to your albums!!!

Great Job. Love the pictures. The weather looked great.

That is a Fourth Order Fresnel that's on display at Hooper Strait. It never served at that light...Hooper had a Fifth. But beautiful, isn't it!

Your photos are wonderful. I think that's the best one I've ever seen of Seven Foot Knolls.

Also, your photo of the replica at Blackistone is my first look.

Thanks so much for sharing with us. I usually get to at least part of the Maryland Challenge each year, but this time, I'm knee deep in boxes getting ready to move over 700 miles. Looking forward to seeing more of your photography.

Judy

Actually, the pictured Fresnel lens in the Hooper Strait lighthouse is a third order lens. I know someone who sat inside it cleaning the glass. Only a very small child could sit inside a fourth order lens.

Maybe, but the NPS has this one listed as a Fourth.
Fourth-Order Fresnel Lens on Display at Hooper Strait Lighthouse

Judy

Thanks everyone!! I'm working on the galleries right now, a lot of resizing to do. I'll let everyone know as soon as it's done.

The lens was just on display, it said it didn't come from the lighthouse, I have a picture of the lens that was actually in it, I'll put it with the rest of the pictures.

Thanks again!

Perhaps after reading this article and studying the photographs, you may agree with me that the NPS has mislabeled that photograph.
Fresnel Lens

And this web page also states that the lens is a third order.

But what do I know?

Nice pictures.

Very nice pictures. Looks like you had great weather, skys are so blue!

Wow! What blue skies! Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Here's the albums, it's not all the pictures, I took about 600:) But these are the ones that tell the story I think. The albums are in the order in which I visited them. Seven Foot Knoll and the lightship are in the same album since they are both located at the Inner Harbor.

http://www.east85.com/gallery/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=623

06, Great photo galleries !!!

Looks like Point Lookout needs a little bathroom remodeling.

LL, Thanks! Yeah it needs some work, but the light is in much better condition than it was a few years ago, the Navy let it sit for decades while they used the land for a tracking facility. The local Maryland delegate raised funds to move the equipment further north along the Chesapeake and a preservation group took over maintaining it. They've done an excellent job, the light was white for a while but they've returned it to it's original yellowish brown.

Thanks again for looking I appreciate it

Thanks for sharing all your great photos. I enjoyed looking through your photo galleries. It's nice to see more in-depth pics of the lighthouse in addition to the normal outside shots.