Wild Horses Relaxing Near a Picnic Area on Assateague Island
The 1933 Hurricane season in the U.S. was the most active on record, and was the most violent. It left behind, in many cases an altered landscape. This was certainly true for the barrier spit off the coast of Maryland that was home to Ocean City. What came to be known as the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane carved an inlet south of Ocean City, and created Assateague Island.
Ocean City, is a booming resort town. Assateague Island is a pristine nature preserve. Last week my daughter picked up my granddaughter for college spring break and the two women stopped at Ocean City and Assateague. I couldn't go. The pictures in today's post were all taken on that trip.
The photo below this paragraph shows my granddaughter walking along the marsh on Assateague. In the distance, horses graze.
The horses on Assateague are wild. Human visitors are cautioned to keep their distance because the horse can kick, bite and even charge a human intruder. This can be a problem, because the horses come into areas where people have food. Here is a sign cautioning visitors about how to act around horses. In the middle of the sign there seems to be a young lady receiving a nasty bite from a horse.
Horses learn (as bears do) that campsites are ready sources of food. The sign above has guidelines for carrying and storing food. Some of the picnic tables have food lockers underneath so food can be stored out of the horse's reach. Here are a few horses hanging around a parking lot and picnic area, possibly looking for scraps.
As barrier islands, Ocean City and Assateague serve as buffers between the mainland and storms that come up along the Atlantic. While Ocean City was nearly destroyed by the Great Storm of 1933, Assateague was a new lease on life. Instead of being developed, as some had planned to do with the island, it was designated a nature preserve and became a public park maintained by the U.S. government and Maryland for the north part of the island. The southern part of the island is in Virginia and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (as Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge).
Both Maryland and Virginia allow visitors to the island, but rules governing visits are different. For example, Maryland allows dogs and Virginia does not.
My daughter and granddaughter visited the Maryland part of the island because they had a dog with them. Here is a picture of the dog in their Ocean City hotel room.
You can see Ocean City Inlet, separating Assateague and Ocean City, on the map below. In order to reach Assateague from Maryland, visitors cross the Verazzano Bridge, which is the end of SR 611 in Maryland.
Map courtesy of U. S. National Park Service public domain
Here is another picture of my granddaughter walking across the marshy part of Assateague. You can see horses in the background.
There are several theories of how the horses came to the island. One theory is that they were dropped off by pirates. Another is that they swam to shore from a shipwreck. Yet another (many consider the most likely theory) is that farmers on the mainland didn't want to be taxed on the livestock so t they would move the horses over to the island to hide them from tax collectors.
My granddaughter loves animals. She hopes one day to work in animal rehabilitation, if not professionally then as a volunteer. Here she is looking across the marsh pool at grazing horses.
Assateague Island is constantly changing. Because of shifting sands, the strip of water between the island and the mainland is narrowing. If it weren't for dredging, the Ocean City Inlet would gradually close. The Army Core of Engineers takes sand from the Ocean City shore and moves it to the Assateague shore. Man-made sand dunes protect the interior of the island and also help to maintain the island as a barrier protecting the mainland from harsh Atlantic storms.
The flora and fauna on Assateague Island is amazingly diverse. Besides the horses, there are deer and more than 200 species of birds. My daughter caught this picture of what seems to be vultures perched in a tree.
I looked it up, and it seems turkey vultures are common on the island. They of course eat carrion, as other vultures do. An interesting (and disgusting) fact I read about these creatures: if a human, or an animal gets too close, the bird will vomit on the perceived intruder. As my source explains, "Considering what they eat, this can be a powerful weapon."
Another picture of a vulture. This vulture was on a low branch in a tree that was along the road. Look closely to see the bird.
An interesting tidbit about turkey vultures: the acid in their stomachs is so powerful that they can eat a tainted animal--"Anthrax, tuberculosis, rabies..."--and not get sick.
Finally, if a turkey vulture gets too hot, it will simply vomit on its feet to cool off. My recommendation is to basically admire these wonders of nature from a distance.
Other animals that make a home in Assateague are frogs, snakes and crabs. Recreational crabbing is allowed, though there are no licenses required, there are some regulations.
While camping is popular at Assateague, my daughter and granddaughter decided to stay at a beachfront hotel in Ocean City. Since they were visiting off season, the nightly rate was very reasonable. During the season (late spring/summer) rates can be as high as $600 a night. Here is a picture of the scene from their balcony.
That is a beautiful sunset. It's a beautiful beach, but cold, quite cold. You can see by the coat worn in the picture below (I don't know who that is), that people bundled up on the beach.
You can also see that politics are saturating the environment. Look at these next two pictures, and read the small print. In the second picture it is superimposed over the sign.
This one:
And this one:
Politics aside, Ocean City is a classic seaside resort town. It had boardwalk hotels, and a row of vendors with a fun house feel to it.
It's estimated that eight million people visit Ocean City every year. It is certain that in summer the beach and boardwalk are much more crowded than they were when my daughter and granddaughter were there.
Here's a picture of another stereotypical boardwalk vendor.
Here is a fun sculpture that kids are invited to climb on. It looks like a dinosaur skeleton, half submerged in the sand.
Here is another beach sculpture. This looks like a whale. A child is apparently not daunted by its size and is preparing to play on it.
You can see behind the whale, Ocean City's version of an amusement park. No seaside resort town is complete without it. Here is a better picture of the park.
Although the West Coast of the U.S. is known for its surfing, it seems surfers find good opportunities along the East Coast, also. According to a website operated by the state of Maryland, Ocean City's ten-mile beach has a long tradition of surfing. Here is a shot of someone hoping to catch a wave in the very cold Atlantic Ocean.
I asked my daughter for her impression of Ocean City, because so many seaside towns along the Atlantic Ocean have a tired look about them. She said this city was fine. The beach was beautiful. However, there were some people mixed in the tourists who put her on alert. She was glad she had the dog with her. He looks ferocious, but he is definitely a sweetheart.
Here is a shot of him with the beach as a background.
The trip home from my granddaughter's college was not very long, but the two young ladies packed a lot of fun in a few days.
Thank you for reading my blog. I leave you with a picture of the Atlantic Ocean, as seen from the Ocean City beach. Peace and health to all.
All pictures were taken by my daughter (except the map), for me expressly to be used on Hive.