Assateague Island National Seashore

This trip was me, Marla and my daughter Jenna.  The trip to the park took us 2 1/2 hours to drive.  The cost is $15 per vehicle for a seven day pass.  This is the minimum pass available.  First, we stopped at the Barrier Island Visitor Center and got a map of the park.  Marla got to play with some shell animals.  Her favorite was the Horseshoe Crab which she was aloud to pick up.  The Visitor Center was on the other side of the Sinepuxent Bay from the park.

When we left the Visitor's Center, we had to drive over a bridge to the island.  Then we had to drive past Assateague State Park which was still closed till we got to the front gate of the National Park.  Before we got to the gate we saw some cars off to the side of the road, so we stopped to see why.  Once we stopped we saw three wild horses in the marsh.  They were a good distance away.  So we got back in the car and continued to the gate.  After paying the admission, we went to the end of the road and started our first hike.

It was a cold, cloudy, windy and misty day. There were alot of waves crashing onto the beach. Marla got cute and tried to get as close as she could to the ocean and a wave crashed and got her feet wet. Nothing will stop that beach bum from getting into the ocean.

Life of the Dunes Trail is a 3/4 mile loop.  It has a sand path that was not an easy walking path but not a hard one either.  There was a lookout half way through where you could see over the whole path and the ocean.  All we saw on this path was some neat vegetation, the dunes and a part of the forest.  After seeing the ocean, Marla wanted to go to the beach.

Next stop on our journey in the park was the South Ocean Beach.  We walked about a 1/2 mile down the beach.  It was a cold, cloudy, windy and misty day.  There were alot of waves crashing onto the beach.  Marla got cute and tried to get as close as she could to the ocean and a wave crashed and got her feet wet.  Nothing will stop that beach bum from getting into the ocean.  Then we decided to head to our next hike.

Life of the Forest Trail is a 1/2 mile loop.  This path was a raised wood platform path with a couple of stone paths intermixed with the wood platform.  A much easier hike except for dodging the horse dung throughout the whole path.  That is because this area has the fresh water ponds for them to drink from.  It also had a lookout, where we saw three more horses and actually saw people close to them so we hurried back to the car to get a closer look at the horses.

Ferry Landing is the area in which we went to to get that closer look.  We had to cross a bridge and then walk through the marsh (where waterproof shoes for this) to get to within 10 feet of one of the horses.  The other two horses where across knee deep water on another marshy land.  I have to say this was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  An absolute must do, seeing these horses in the wild.

After Ferry Landing, we decided to head to the last Trail but never made it since it was getting close to closing time and we came across a deer.  Marla got to within twenty feet of the deer before it took off.  So after her adventure chasing the deer into the bushes we left the park.  Right outside the park and before the bridge we saw three more horses.

Activities available at the park include Wildlife Viewing, Bicycling, Hiking on three Nature Trails, Exhibits and Video presentations at the Visitor Center, Swimming, Fishing, Camping (No electric and only cold showers), Canoeing, Clamming, US Life-Saving Service Boathouse Museum and Crabbing.