Our Trip to Assateague Island National Park

[tlhdoc]

We took our second camping trip of the year to Assateague Island National Seashore in MD, this past week.  We had 6 wonderful days on the island.  The reservation system doesn't start until April 15th each year and we started our trip on the 13th.  I called the campground on Thursday morning to see if they would hold the site we had reserved starting Saturday and the answer was NO.  I was disappointed in that, because we didn't want to have to move to a new campsite on Saturday.  We lucked out and the site was open when we got there.  The first morning I woke with the sun light flooding the bunk I was sleeping in.  I unzipped the window further and laid in be watching the clouds, birds, elk and 2 horses wonder by.  On Saturday we went to the souther end of the island in VA, which is a wildlife refugee.  We took the tour of the island which takes you to more remote parts of the island were most of the VA horses live.  We saw 3 foals, 2 of which were less than a week old, many other horses, close to a dozen snapping turtles (it was mating season for them), snakes, shore birds, osprey, etc. on the tour.  We also opted to climb to the top of the light house.  I am not fond of heights, but the view was wonderful.  We went out for Easter Dinner Sunday.  It was a very relaxing trip.  We watched a couple of movies and played many hands of cards.  I can't wait to go back in June.
 
 
On a sad note we discovered that one of our favorite "wild" horses, named "Scotty" died 5 days before we went there.  Anyone that has ever gone to the MD end of the island has probably seen Scotty.  He was the only red roan horse on the island and hung out near the bridge.  He was 24 years old and the oldest stallion in the park.  Every year when we go back to the island we would discuss if Scotty would still be there, looking for him as we crossed the bridge to the island.  We will miss him.
 
I posted some new pictures from our Easter Trip to Assateague Island and a few  more "mod" pictures.

[o2jmpr]

Sorry to hear about Scotty!!!  On the brighter side though, it's one of those great memories you will always have thanks to camping!!!
Otherwise, your trip sounded great (except for the snake part)  I'll run like a school girl from a snake to this day!

[esclark]

That sounds like such a nice and relaxing trip!  I'm so glad you had a nice time.

[AustinBoston]

We camped twice on Chincoteague in Virginia, and from there visited the Virginia end of Assateague.  Those were both BP (Before Pop-up) in our tent days (uh, but once was in a motel) when the kids were still small.

We saw a lot of wildlife, and one wild death.  An expired leatherback turtle washed up while we were on the beach.  We encountered one type of wildlife I don't care to see again.  After being on foot looking at horses, we got in the car, and PJay discovered her legs were crawling with tiny deer ticks...literally hundreds of them.  Every one of us had at least a dozen of the tiny deer ticks, and at least one attachment.  I think PJay had about a dozen that had attached.  Cemented my eternal hatred of ticks, and my willingness to use lots of DEET in tick country.

If you ever get the chance, visit the NASA facility at Wallops Island.  It's in Virginia, just inland from Chincoteague.  Wallops Island was the United State's first spaceport, before anybody had even heard of Cape Canaveral.  The first unmanned Mercury spacecraft were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, not Florida.  It's still used to launch very small sattelites, to track deep space probes, and as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.

It's a long drive from Minnesota, so I don't know if we'll ever get back.  But that's cool, because there's plenty of other places to visit!

Austin

[tlhdoc]

Yes the ticks are always a problem on the island and in the summer the biting flies and mosquitoes add to the joys of camping there.  

For those that have been to the NASA visitors center in the past, they have redone many of the displays since July of last year.  Wallops has down many sounding rockets and in into using balloons big time now.

[fritz_monroe]

While DEET is the best for keeping ticks away, it should not be used on young children.

When I was in the Boy Scouts, we camped on Assateaque Island and it was a lot of fun.  Another animal that lives on the island is the Eastern Hog-Nosed snake.  They are harmless to humans, and will play dead if they are unable to scare off a predator.

[PITPOP27]

The way you rose up in the morning sounds heavenly!  Looking forward to next weekend in anticipation!

Glad you all had a great time.