Assateague Island National Seashore

Assateague Island National Seashore stretches along a 37-mile Atlantic barrier island shared between Maryland and Virginia, and it is home to the famous Assateague wild ponies — a free-roaming herd descended from horses believed stranded on the island during a colonial-era shipwreck, or more likely placed there by 17th-century planters avoiding mainland livestock taxes. The Maryland section, managed jointly by the National Park Service and Maryland State Park, offers undeveloped Atlantic beach camping, surf fishing, swimming, wildlife observation, and kayaking in the calm waters of Sinepuxent Bay behind the island. Visitors enter from Berlin via MD-611 and reach the visitor center, where rangers post daily wildlife sighting logs and tide tables. The Assateague ponies are genuinely wild animals that roam freely across the island including through campgrounds and parking areas — rangers consistently warn visitors not to feed or approach them, as the animals kick and bite when startled. The open-ocean beach runs uninterrupted for miles south of the guarded swimming area, offering solitude within thirty minutes of the crowded Ocean City resort strip. The Life of the Dunes and Life of the Marsh nature trails behind the visitor center are each under one mile in length and pass through cordgrass marshes and stabilized dune fields favored by shorebirds during spring and fall migration. Backcountry camping on the undeveloped southern stretches requires a permit and a multi-mile walk or bay-side kayak paddle. Summer weekends bring heavy crowds to the swimming beach; the island empties significantly mid-week and through September. Surf fishing is productive year-round along the Atlantic beach, and a free federal beach fishing license is obtainable at the visitor center.