South from Rehoboth stretches one of the most pristine lengths of beach on the northern East Coast: Delaware Seashore State Park (302/227-3071), which contains six miles of open beach with golden-flecked white sand and acres of marshland estuary, thronged in season with migrating birds—and bird-watchers (and campers and anglers, too.) The park’s many beaches are all easily accessible from beachfront Hwy-1.
The park has camping and nice new cottages (costing $1,500 a week in summer!), and is book-ended by a pair of beachfront resort towns. Dewey Beach in the north draws a younger, collegiate crowd, while Bethany Beach in the south attracts more families. Approaching Maryland, the 1858 Fenwick Island Lighthouse, on the bay side of Hwy-1 just south of Hwy-54, marks the state border. This lighthouse is a local landmark, but the waist-high white marker in front of it may be more significant: Placed in 1751, it marked the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, of which Delaware was then a part. Showing respect to the colonial proprietors, the more than 250-year-old marker has the Calvert Family coat of arms on the Maryland (south) side, and William Penn’s family crest on the other.
