Leaving Assateague

The horses made sure we had a good send off when we left the National Seashore portion of Assateague.

Ok, ok. Enough with the horses.

That’s a beautiful view of the bay and the few clouds that appeared in the sky.

After leaving the National Seashore, we stopped for a brief visit of Assateague State Park. It should be noted, for those that want to know such things, that it costs $10 for a 7-day pass to access Assateague Island National Seashore. It’s $3 for one day at Assateague State Park. The national park portion does have someone checking for passes. The state park portion is on an honor system and I don’t think there was anyone out there checking to see who paid and who didn’t. I would imagine they’re stricter about enforcing that during the warmer months. For the record, we paid our $3, being the honest folks that we are.

The beaches on Assateague (both the National portion and the State portion) are much nicer, in my opinion, than the beaches in Ocean City. The Ocean City beaches seem so small to me (maybe because I’m used to the Jersey shore where, in places like Wildwood, it seems it’s a mile between when you first hit the sand and when you reach the water).

You can see Ocean City way in the background of this next photo:

The dunes:

It was quite windy and sand was blowing all over the place. We were getting blown all over the place too.

I’ll never understand people. The dunes were clearly marked with signs asking people to stay off of them (it’s a delicate ecosystem, walking on them disturbs the plant growth, etc.). In addition, there was an electric fence, clearly marked “electric fence.” Yet there was a guy who managed to climb over the fence (maybe the juice wasn’t turned on?), walking all over the dunes. What is it about “keep off” or “don’t feed” people don’t understand?

We sat on the beach for a little while, wrapped in a blanket, trying not to get too much sand in our hair and eyes. Then we drove down to the fishing pier.

That’s the bridge that goes to Assateague from the mainland.

Fishing pier.

That’s it for our visit to Assateague. We took the coastal route for part of our trip home, making our way up to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. We stopped occasionally to look at some of the beaches in Delaware.

More to come.

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