We have just spent THE BEST six days on Assateague Island. This is what our Spring 2018 trip has been missing, wide open spaces,nature, and sights we haven’t seen yet. I’d like to thank Paul and Kay, our RVing buddies from Maine, for putting this place on our radar.
But first, how did we get here?
100 years ago, we would have had to take the purple route around the Chesapeake Bay. That’s a lot of time and miles. In this modern era, we were able to take the green route. That route includes the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (inside the blue circle).
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) was something we researched. We knew Paul and Kay used it successfully last fall. But our RV is taller than theirs. The maximum height is 13′ 6″. We are 13′ 4″. Phew, we make it by two inches.
We had 17.6 miles to traverse. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel consists of two tunnels (necessary so boat traffic can get in and out of the Bay) and three bridges.
Entering the CBTT, it was time to pay the toll. It cost $31 to take our RV towing the car through the CBBT.
Onto the first bridge. Caution – Fog Ahead.
Yes, we found the fog!
Into a tunnel. There was one lane for each direction of traffic. I can’t imagine what a mess it would be if there was a breakdown or accident.
And out of a tunnel. Jim did an excellent job keeping the Blue Flame in its lane. Next stop…Assateague Island.
Assateauge Island is a barrier island bordering Virginia and Maryland known for its pristine beaches and wild horses. At the south end (Virginia) is Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Anyone remember the children’s book Misty of Chincoteague? At the north end (Maryland) is the Assateague National Seashore and Assateague Island State Park. We are camping in the State Park, but have been visiting both the State Park and the National Seashore.
Our sweet camping spot at Assateague State Park. We are only a dune away from the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s dry camping (no hookups), but no worries. Our solar panels performed admirably, charging up our batteries every day. Note the lack of people when we arrived on Wednesday. We had the whole loop to ourselves until…..
…Friday. Suddenly we were surrounded by tents! But by Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (checkout time), they were all gone again.
The Beach is absolutely beautiful.
Sunrise over the Atlantic. All we had to do to witness this sight was step out of our RV. I could do a blog post with nothing but all the sunrise pictures I took!!!
We took walks on the beach. Access to the beaches in the campground section is limited to campers only. As a result, we felt like we had our own private beach.
Surfs up! Saturday brought out the surfers to the National Seashore. There were many more people in this public section of beach.
On to the wild horses. The size of the herd is actively managed by the National Park Service (NPS). This keeps the island’s fauna and horses healthy. The NPS has quite an interesting way of doing it…they vaccinate mares every year to prevent pregnancies until a mare is 4 years old. The mare is then allowed to have a foal, then vaccinated again yearly for the rest of her life. This controls the herd size and prevents inbreeding. We saw a very interesting video on all this, but I can’t find it online. But I did find this publication from the NPS that has the details. https://www.nps.gov/asis/planyourvisit/upload/Horse-Brief.pdf. Reading the study, all I could think about is Janelle and her research into salt marshes. Janelle…this work is right up your alley!
People approaching and feeding the horses is a problem. And horses are no different than bears, if you leave food out,they will find it. These signs were affixed to the picnic tables in the campground.
These horses were right along the main road just after you come over the bridge onto the island.
We spotted this mare and foal along the main road in the National Seashore. We didn’t have any horses come into the campground, they were all in the salt marshes. They usually only come to the beach if it’s hot and they want the ocean breeze to cool down and shoo away insects. But there was plenty of evidence that horses were in the campground, i.e. road apples. I’ll spare you a picture of those.
We hiked the trails in the National Seashore. One of the trails took us through the dunes and into an area that someone once tried to develop as a resort.
This hiking trail went through the dunes. We saw the remnants of an old asphalt road, the result of an attempt to develop the island into a resort. Thank goodness they didn’t succeed!
Developers indeed did try to turn Assateague Island into a resort. An asphalt road was laid down, building lots plotted out and sold, and buildings started. There were thirty houses built when the 1962 Ash Wednesday N’oreaster hit and wiped out all the buildings. Eventually, it was decided to preserve the island in its natural state. If you want to know more, below is a Youtube video that shows the history of how this happened. Or use this link… https://youtu.be/0BOUq17jDf4 We saw this video at the Visitor’s Center and found it quite interesting.
Another hike took us to the bayside of the Island.
This boardwalk through us through the salt marsh. It had an accompanying audio tour (via a cell phone) describing the area. We always appreciate audio tours!
An egret enjoying the salt marsh.
We spotted this horse out grazing near the marsh. The horses tend to gather in packs, but we didn’t see his of this horse’s buddies.
All in all, it’s been a great six days here. We are so glad we came. I’m adding Assateague Island to my list of favorite places to visit.
I’m in my happy place!
Thanks again for your blog. The seashore is a special place. We used to go to Ocracoke each Easter. Wish I could go back. Getting warmer —- maybe?
B.A….I need to quiz you on cool places to visit. Ocracoke looks cool! Not much warmer this morning…40 and a stiff breeze. But we were comfy in Blue.
Just finished watching the video — nice. Glad you made it through the tunnel — better you than me. Watching the surf is like watching a campfire — so peaceful.
Very brave to take on the bridges and tunnel! Assateague is a magical place.Wish I was there!