![]() ![]() No camping is allowed on the Refuge, but the Seashore offers six backcountry campsites, all in recommended wilderness in Maryland.Īfter 7 visits over several years, we designed a good island backpack trip to minimize impacts of agencies’ “hook and bullet” and vehicle priorities, no water, closures, high tides, and biting insects. The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1943 to protect shorebirds, occupies the island’s south end in Virginia and is administered by U.S. A small section near the Maryland entrance road is Assateague State Park and campground. The island was designated a National Seashore under National Park Service management in 1965. A 1933 storm tore Assateague off Fenwick just south of Ocean City, creating an inlet between the two islands. Assateague was originally the southern tip of Fenwick Island, a barrier island in Maryland and Delaware. The second barrier island, Assateague-our coastal backpacking favorite-was only about 4 hours’ drive from our home in the D.C. Although the Park Service seemed to favor day users, historic mansion tours and patrols on excluded roads within wilderness, and visitor control over backcountry ambience we found wintertime wilderness solitude for our trips. In another post we discussed our adventures in Cumberland Island Wilderness in Georgia. Both were managed as if wilderness experience was an afterthought. The flow of beach visitors slows considerably in late fall and winter, but beach visit may be cold and windy, and still impacted by real estate developments.ĭespite more than 2,000 miles of Atlantic coastline in Eastern U.S., only a few strips of state and federal lands are open to the public most is privately owned.ĭuring 17 years in the Washington DC area, we found solitude, beach hiking, and quiet camping on two barrier island wilderness areas administered by the National Park Service. For most people, this entails hours driving bumper-to-bumper a collage of business enterprises lining crowded coastal highways congestion of beach houses and motels on the ocean edge and finally, strips of beach crowded with sun-tanners, kids, dogs, dune buggies, beach bikes, and a few walkers and joggers. Thousands make the spring or summer pilgrimage east seeking undulating coastal expanse, shorebirds, shells, salt air, and wild skies along humanity’s favorite wilderness: the ever-restless, ever-changing ocean. Vehicle: $45.00 - USFWS Migratory Waterfowl Duck Stamp ($25.00) plus beach parking fee ($20.00)“Going to the beach” is an iconic ritual for many Eastern U.S.Vehicle: $45.00 - Refuge Annual Pass, valid 1 year from purchase.Vehicle: $10.00 - 1 Day - Available only at Virginia Entrance Station.Information about Assateague State Park Entrance fees Beach Parking fee upgrade: $20.00 - For visitors using the USFWS Migratory Waterfowl Duck Stamp as an entrance pass, valid July 1 - June 30 annually. ![]() A family traveling together shall pay no more than the vehicle fee.)
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