Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area

Author's Comments

Most people driving through Queenstown have no idea the island is there. That is the first thing worth knowing. You cross a small bridge and the Eastern Shore opens differently than it does anywhere else I have been on the Chesapeake. The road loops the perimeter of the island and there is almost nothing on it. Working fields, ancient white oaks at the edge of the water, the river on all sides going silver or amber depending on the hour. In summer the osprey are everywhere, nesting on platforms and dead snags, carrying fish low over the road. I watched one hover for nearly a minute above the shallows once, completely indifferent to me. The light at golden hour in September does something particular here. The river is wide enough that the reflection catches the full weight of the sky, and the farm fields behind you are still green, and the oaks have that late-summer heaviness. It is not a dramatic landscape. It will not ask anything of you. That is what I mean when I say it is worth finding. Come on a Tuesday. Come in June when the osprey are on the nests and the light stays long. Drive slowly. The island is small enough to loop twice and still feel like you have not seen it properly.

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