Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary in Maryland was a very fortunate find for me. I came upon it when I was searching for something to do while my wife and daughter went to Six Flags. The internet search located this spot quickly and I was pleased to see it was less than 30 minutes away from the amusement park. I would much rather amuse myself in nature any day of the week rather than be forced to endure an amusement park! My wife, knowing this and being the sensitive, loving wife she is, suggested that I find something to do while they enjoyed the park.
I looked over the Merkle website, which was helpful, but I still wasn’t exactly sure what I might find there. I knew taking my bike seemed to be the prudent thing to do since the “Critical Area Driving Tour” was only open to cars on Sundays. Taking the mountain bike was indeed helpful and I saw wildlife immediately! This place is awesome!
Today I am posting some photos of the turtles I saw at the sanctuary. There were a lot of turtles to be seen but they were a little shy. They were mostly sunning themselves on the logs when I came upon them. Being patient was imperative and eventually some of the turtles accepted my presence if I didn’t move much.
As you can see in the one photograph below, some of the turtles have some green algae on their shells. This makes them more difficult to spot because they are well camouflaged with this accessory. I also saw several turtles in the river but they were farther away and stayed in the water. One of the photos below shows the head of one of these turtles.
The Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary was a great location to visit. The trails are well maintained and there is plenty of wildlife to see. I will definitely be going back there again!
