… but honestly, it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be.

After returning from our most recent National Parks trip out west in January, we were still ‘chasing the dragon’ so to speak and trying to cultivate a little bet of adventure at home.

It was March (St. Patrick’s Day weekend) in Maryland so it was still pretty cold and probably not the best time for this buuut when has that ever stopped us?

We left home in Baltimore on a Saturday morning and drove straight there. It’s about three hours away and we usually take the route through Delaware (instead of through Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) in order to avoid tolls.

We checked in at the ranger’s station past the entrance gate and headed to our site.

We picked site 72 in the Oceanside Walk-in section which is within the tent-only section and cost $40/night. It’s about 25 steps to the Atlantic Ocean and I *loved* how it felt more like a wild beach than a vacation beach.

The rangers gave us a hang tag for the car and we went to find our assigned parking spot near-ish to the entrance to the part of the beach where our site was. I highly recommend bringing some type of wagon/cart, it’s a real pain to make all of the trips back and forth from the car. March was nice-to-cold weather and I can’t imagine what the summer heat would feel like doing this. There’s really no shade at all.

They have RV sites too. It was pretty well populated and I loved our site for the sense of privacy it provided, it was kinda secluded back on the dune and surrounded by brush, which provided some wind protection and noise blocking too. It was the closest to the bathrooms (so convenient!) and didn’t feel like it one bit.

There’s a short walk on a boardwalk over a marsh near this area, so we quickly checked that out. All I remember about being there is that at some point in our conversation, we were joking about the government spying on people and then we saw two bald eagles fly pretty low over us haha. Nice job, FBI.

As the sun started to go down, the relaxing breeze picked up into an annoying wind. We’d already cooked the majority of the hot parts of our dinner(s), but I’d imagine the sand was probably getting in everyone else’s food. It was threatening rain and we watched several people lose their rain flies in the wind, and they didn’t get them back.

We had seen a few of the wild horses neighing about earlier in the evening and paid they paid us little mind, but by the time it was dark outside they were on full-troll-patrol. We saw them raiding people’s campsites, blocking the path (you’re not allowed to come close to them), and generally being menaces.

Around 10pm, we were hanging out by the fire and I thought I saw two strangers entering our site which kinda sketched me out. Sure enough, they were two non-locals whose entire dinner was being eaten by horses and they couldn’t get them to go away. We didn’t know how to help them other than to give them some pots to try to bang around.

They called the ranger’s station but either no one was available to come out, or just not available for something like that. We heard them banging in the distance, and eventually they returned our items but without any luck on their end.

Over night, there was a torrential downpour of rain with crazy wind. Our rain fly was beating so hard against out tent and I felt like it was snapping against my face (I’m a wall sleeper). I kept waking up to that sound and just dreading waking up in the morning to our canopy and the rest of our stuff being totally demolished. Also, I was freeeeeeeezing cold and Ike had made me a hot Nalgene water bottle to sleep with.

When we did wake up in the morning to the sound of a calm Atlantic Ocean, all of our stuff was good. Our camp neighbors, on the other hand… some people’s belongings were strewn across the beach, some people looked like they gave up and left overnight altogether, and everyone just seemed ready to go home.

The horses made another appearance in the morning, this time much less aggressively, and that’s where so many of these pics are from.

On our way out, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center (which is off of the main island) to buy some stickers, get our National Parks passport stamp, and tell the park staff about our tale of woe from the night before.

So, note: The horses definitely look very cute, but they’re wild and they act like it. They’re little opportunists who know you can do nothing to them. Your mileage may vary, but I’m glad to have checked this camping experience off the list and I feel lucky to live close enough to where I can stick to day trips without all of the overnight equine-food-thief chaos haha.

Also worth mentioning – even though it was relatively chilly when we were here, it was perfect because there were NO bugs. I’ve heard that Assateague is notorious for having immense amount of flying bugs, including mosqutios and biting flies, who will ruin your entire day and chew you to pieces if you don’t come prepared with Deet, long sleeves and pants, bug nets for your head, for your tent, all of the things. Personally, I could not deal with that – so head’s up!

Another snap of this little cutie jerk for good measure. ❤

To reserve your spot at the Assateague Island campground:
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232507

To learn more about the island in general:
https://www.nps.gov/asis/

Link to the best tent in the world, which is actually 50% off when I’m writing this:
https://www.backcountry.com/stoic-driftwood-3-tent-3-person-3-season