Assateaque

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Assateaque Island

Last fall we traveled to Ocean City, MD. While there we visited Assateaque Island which is about 5-8 miles south of Ocean City. The island is now a nature preserve with many different type of occupants. One of the more well known is a small bred of horses that migrate from the island to the mainland every year in the fall.
The horses seem to be a cross between a burro and horse and are extremely friendly. The only bad part of that is that they bite Along with the horses; there are deer, rabbits, a wide variety of birds and tourists.
On one side of the island there is the bay which has a totally different variety than the other side of the island. The ocean side of the island is how beaches should be empty of all signs of human occupation. To walk along the beach without lifeguard stands, imposing houses and any other structures is great.
Strange as it may seem Assateaque was not always a preserve. This becomes apparent as you walk down one of the nature paths and find large pieces of asphalt roadway and street signs still intact from when the island was developed.
Sometime in the 1950’s, Assateaque was connected to the Ocean City area by a land bridge. Along came Mother Nature in the form of a hurricane and the land bridge was gone and so was most of the structures on the island. At that point, it became clear that this area would only suit the needs of those who use it to learn from nature.
There is no more serene sight than to watch as the sunlight slowly disappears along the ocean’s edge and the sky starts to slowly fill with the stars. This is how you would like to believe that the early settlers found most of our coastline.

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