December 6-7, 2024.
Assateague Island National Seashore is a unit of the National Park System that protects a barrier island on the coast of Virginia and Maryland. It’s famous for the feral horses that roam the beach. It’s another one of those places I’d never seen on the east coast, and it looked like a unique place to camp. We chose to visit the northern end, located in Maryland.
Logistics and some history
We arrived at the visitor center at 4:09 just to find out that it closes at 4 pm. Yes, I could have looked that up but I did not. Despite trip planning being my full time job now, I still overlook things. Not to be deterred, we continued to the ranger station to pick up a camping permit. This part I did research. It’s $40 a night for dry camping, which is utterly ridiculous, so I paid for one night. There was hardly anyone else in the campground, so I guess we paid for solitude.
As we entered the park, we got to see both a horse and a Sika deer with the sunset as a backdrop. Not a bad introduction to this unique place. Regarding the horses, I’ll let the NPS tell the story: “Local folklore describes the Assateague horses as survivors of a shipwreck off the Virginia coast. While this dramatic tale of struggle and survival is popular, there are no records yet that confirm it. The most plausible explanation is that they are the descendants of horses that were brought to barrier islands like Assateague in the late 17th century by mainland owners to avoid fencing laws and taxation of livestock. (source)” Classic American tax evasion, a familiar story. And for the Sika deer, they’re Japanese natives who were brought to the US in the 1920’s by some rich guy who wanted to hunt them. Another classic tale.
Back to the story we’re writing, though…we arrived at our camp just before dark. I spent the evening poring over the maps and literature about the park in order to make a plan for the morning. We also began working on our Junior Ranger booklet, knowing we’d only have a day to complete it!
Hiking trails
As I made breakfast in the morning, I kept hearing a sharp “knock” on the side window. We didn’t have any neighbors and that was a weird place to try and get our attention anyways. I flipped up the window cover to see what was happening out there.
A grumpy Northern mockingbird stood on the van’s ladder, pecking at his nemesis: the bird’s reflection in the window. We shooed it away, but it kept coming back. The bird fiercely defended his territory, leaving us a memory of this encounter via some scratches on the van!
There are three short trails here that probably barely add up to a mile if you do them all.
Life of the Marsh: We walked straight from camp to this trail. It was short, cold, with little wildlife. At the end of the trail we wandered onto the beach, where sliding pucks of frozen foam provided surprisingly good entertainment.
Life of the Forest: We drove to the parking areas for the next two hikes. Birdsong filled the forest. We saw (and heard) several familiar birds, including the Carolina wren and yellow-rumped warbler. But we also picked up a new bird: brown-headed nuthatch! It’s a cute little bird and it makes a silly squeaky sound. I enjoyed this little trail. At the end of the path we reached a boardwalk overlooking the marshland. Interpretive signs told us all about the importance of the various habitats and how they’re changing over time. We used this information to work out some of the activities in our Junior Ranger book (if you haven’t done one of these yet, consider this your invitation!)
Life of the Dunes: The dune trail was frankly quite dull. We decided to hike the beach back instead of following the trail. At least on the beach you can look for dead stuff! We found lots of shells and feathers and interesting things to look at on the way back, including several clam shells that were pockmarked with hundreds of holes. Hmmmm. On the final stretch back to the parking area, we finally saw a horse on the road, then another. We didn’t get the picturesque “horse on the beach” view, but we did get a closer look at a few.
In conclusion
When we reached the van, we made lunch. As we ate our food, I noticed the horses outside were moving closer. Again I pulled the window covers down so I could get a better look. The van serves as an excellent wildlife blind! In this case, I got a lunchtime horse show because a family of beautiful, fuzzy horses plopped down right in front of the van! I sat in the front seat watching them hang out and nuzzle each other. We lingered longer than we’d planned just so we could watch the horses. I was nervous to start the van and startle them, but they didn’t even blink when we turned the van on. It was a very special experience to have the horses come to us and not the other way around.
Right before we exited the park, we headed into that visitor center that we missed the day before. After viewing the exhibits, we talked to the ranger to review our activity book. We also asked him about those holey clam shells. “Boring sponges,” he explained. And no, he wasn’t being sarcastic.
I think Assateague is a place that people generally visit in summer. Then you’d get long, beautiful beaches, warm weather, colorful flowers and lots of active wildlife. December is cold and quiet. On the plus side, you don’t have to wait in a 2-mile line of traffic and you can roll up on a Friday evening and grab a campsite. But pack some layers and things to do! If I go again, I’d like to visit the Virginia side to see how they compare. Or maybe go during warmer weather and plan a backpacking trip to the area of the park that’s off limits to day visitors. That might be a way to get away from the summer throngs.