Virginia

Stratford Hall Cliffs (Potomac, VA)

Permit required📚 Compiled from public sources

The Virginia counterpart to Maryland's Calvert Cliffs — towering Miocene exposures along the Potomac at Stratford Hall. Public access is by paid plantation entry only, but the beach below produces exceptional Calvert and Choptank Formation teeth.

⚠ Partial inputs

today

Fair

Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · low tide during daylight · onshore wind at low tide — ~0.5ft above predicted (little beach) · best low 40

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-07-21T08:44:34.997Z

Workable but not ideal. Best window opens around the 3:19 PM low (0.4 ft). Moderate S winds (12 mph); offshore push at the low keeps the beach exposed.

Heads up: a second low at 3:15 AM is after dark — bring a headlamp.

Next 3 days: Thu is the pick (73); today drops to 40 — skip if you can.

Best Window Today

3:19 PM

Plan around the fair low-tide window. Cliff site — continuous erosion baseline · low tide during daylight · onshore wind at low tide — ~0.5ft above predicted (little beach) · best low 40.

Hunt score

Fair

Astronomical low

0.4 ft

3:19 PM

Predicted real low

0.9 ft

above NOAA by 0.5 ft

Low-window wind

12 mph

Offshore (good)

Tides: NOAA Colonial Beach, VA (reference) (station 8635150)

Best window this week

Thu, Jul 23 · 4:59 PM

Offshore 6mph — more beach

Score

Great

Confidence: Partial — on-site outcomes, dossier verification. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

First quarter

49% illuminated

Sunrise 10:01 AM · Sunset 12:27 AM

Wind right now

12 mph from S

Gusts 26 mph · best from NE

Wind is onshore — water piling against the cliff, expect a higher tide line at the low.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Next 7 days

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▼ means the forecast wind will likely push the real low below NOAA's prediction (more beach to hunt). ▲ means it will likely sit above the prediction (less beach). Rough rule: ~0.04 ft per mph of sustained wind during the low-tide window.

Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 8635150 (Colonial Beach, VA (reference)) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

Tide curve · next 48h

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 40

Cliff sites score from a baseline plus recent storm stir, daylight low tide timing, wind exposure, and seasonal events (only when storms are actually shedding cliff material).

Best low

3:19 PM at 0.4 ft

Predicted real low

0.9 ft

Wind deviation

Less beach by 0.5 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Fair. Standard conditions — go for the volume hunt.

Cliff baseline + tide depth

43.8 / 50

Constant 45 baseline (cliffs always shed) plus ±5 from how deep the best low actually pulls back.

Storm stir

3.6 / 25

Past 72h wind churn (peak gust 25 mph). Offshore = +, onshore = −.

Light at best low

9.0 / 9

Daylight low = +9, twilight = 0, headlamp-only = −9.

Wind exposure at best low

-17.4 / 12

Wind setup piles 0.5 ft of water around the low.

Spring tide

0.6 / 5

Closer to a new or full moon = wider tidal swing.

Recent rainfall

0.0 / 12

No measurable rain in the past 48h — no slump signal.

Event boostadded

No active events for this site today.

Why not higher? The biggest unused headroom today is wind exposure at best low (+29.4 pts available). A day with that maxed out would score around 69.

Show the math

components: 43.8 + 3.6 + 9.0 + -17.4 + 0.6 + 0.0 = 39.7 final = 40

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

Hunted here today?

Rate this hunt

We predicted 40. Tell us how it actually went — your rating calibrates the model.

model 2026.04.29

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Event timeline

⚡

Calvert Cliffs Spring Freeze-Thaw Erosion Window

ended

Late winter freeze-thaw cycles destabilize the Chesapeake Group cliffs. March–early May historically produces the most fresh fall material on the beaches at Brownie's, Matoaka, and Westmoreland.

2026-03-01 – 2026-05-15

- Freeze-thaw cycles loosen cliff matrix

- First low tide after a heavy rain or nor'easter is prime

+10 pts

Geology

FormationsCalvert Formation, Choptank Formation

EpochsMiocene

Age~17-12 million years

Star speciesOtodus megalodon (uncommon)

Technique

Walk the narrow beach below the cliffs at low tide. Search the swash zone and recently slumped material; do not dig into or undercut the cliffs. Best after winter storms.

Access

Stratford Hall Plantation charges admission and provides the only legal cliff-base access. Strict 'no-dig' policy on the cliffs themselves; beach surface collecting is allowed.

🗺 Open in Google Maps 🧭 Open in Apple Maps

Legality & ethics

Surface collecting only on plantation property with paid admission. Removing material from the cliff face is prohibited.

Hazards

Falling cliff debris
Rising tide trapping you against the bluff
Sun exposure

Insider tips

Time your visit for the lowest tides — Stratford's beach narrows fast
Look for slumps from recent rain; freshly fallen blocks weather out teeth quickly
Bring a small mesh sifter for the gravel pockets

References & further reading