At The Beach – Ocean City Maryland

Assateague Island National Seashore – just 20 minutes drive from Ocean City MD – A return visit this spring was enlightening and somewhat of a welcome adventure from the past winter doldrums! Those of you who are visiting Ocean City MD should try to include this as a daytrip which can be completed in about 4 to 6 hours or longer if you wish! ( Oh! bring the kids and teens ) as they will love it if they understand and can learn more about our environment and continue to gain an appreciation for the wonders about us! The National Park Service has several FREE entry periods during the summer so take advantage of this and avoid the $15 entry (per car) fee. http://www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm. Senior Citizens (Over 62 years of age) qualify and can register for a FREE PASS card (with a one time $10 fee) at the Parks providing free entry ANYTIME to any of the Federal Parks in the USA. http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm.

[During our visit on June 2, 2009 to the Assateague National Seashore Park, we found an abundance of photo opportunities of Deer and Assateague Horses ( Ponies ) .. It sort of began with a feeding Deer as we drove down the road towards the entry to the National Park Area .. A Deer feeding on the succulent leaves along the roadside. We stopped and took a photo from the car. The deer just sort of looked at us wondering what we were up to! Be very quiet however with little or no movement as the deer will vanish in a second if they are concerned about you or your encounter on their world!

We passed through the ENTRY GATE of the National Seashore Park - display my senior citizen pass to gain free entry (normally $20 for a pass - good for 7 days) .. and our first stop was at the "Life of the Marsh Trail" - a 1/2 mile loop out over the marshy grasses and water! There are "Placard" stands along the walk explaining about the various types of "creatures" and "plant growth" that inhabit or grow in the marsh areas, such as crabs, minnows, marsh birds, herons, egrets, etc..

Two Seagulls were perched on a railing and enjoying the view on this hot day! They were quite reluctant to fly away until we were within 10 feet of them. We really didn’t want to disturb them but had to walk past them to proceed on the trail. Off they flew when we went past , and they quickly returned to their perch once we were beyond them and further along the trail.

About 1/2 way through the trail, there is an overlook with quite a spectacular view of the Chincoteague Bay! There is a bench at the top to take a rest, or just simply enjoy the fresh breezes coming across the water. On one side is a down ramp set of stairs that leads to the bay itself and you can get your feet wet there, as seen here in the picture of one of the students “Olga” who accompanied us on this Assategue Island Tour Day.

So – onward we walked to finish the loop and return to our car in the parking lot. After retrieving us a cold soda from the beverage cooler in the trunk, we drove on to the next adventure, BAYSIDE drive, which leads to a parking lot bordering on the Bay, with Porta Potties, rental canoes and kayaks, and a bulkhead and walk over bridge for crabbing.

There were quite a few parents with children crabbing from the dock area there. We were VERY surprised to see a family of Assateague Ponies just across the bridge. 4 or so adult and one baby pony! We walked over the small bridge leading to an smaller island in the marsh to get closer to the Assateague Ponies.

We quickly realized that in the small group of horses was a small pony (foal) probably not more than a few weeks old. Eventually we managed to approach the entire group and get closer to the small “newborn”. To our amazement, the adult horses simply ignored us and keep feeding on the marsh grasses as we slowly approached the small baby pony. I was accompanied by two international students from Russia ” Olga and Irina ” and they, as well as myself were delighted and excited to be so close to a natural setting. The girls wanted to see if they could “pet” the newborn foal and kept inching closer to it.

Sucess – to our surprise .. The girls were able to walk directly up to the baby Foal and pet it while the adult horses continued on with their feeding. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE 5 MINUTE VIDEO OF ASSATEAGUE Horses June 2009.

Visiting Ocean City Md for a vacation or family get away – don’t forget natures bounty is just a 45 minute drive away . Great Vacation Rentals are found on At The Beach – Ocean City Md. As always – ” best rate guaranteed ” Ocean City MD hotel reservations are available on At The Beach here:

Tags for the publication: Assateague Island | Assateague Island Seashore | Assateague Ponies | Assateague SEashore Marsh Nature Trail.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 8:22 pm and is filed under The Beginnings! Blogging At The Beach, Things to do & sightseeing and tagged as Assateague Island | Assateague Island Seashore | Assateague Ponies | Assateague SEashore Marsh Nature Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.