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Barrier island in Maryland and Virginia, United States
Photo: Flickr user: Dean Wissing https://www.flickr.com/people/deanwissing/, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Assateague Island National Seashore is a beautiful barrier island, administrated by park services, permanently uninhabited, and most famous for its charismatic wild ponies. The northern tip of the island is a Maryland state park, while the rest of the Maryland section of the island is a United States National Seashore. The southern third of the island runs into Virginia, and is managed by the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. It is completely uninhabited, and open only to daytime canoe/kayak and foot visits.
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Canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards are available for rental mid-April through mid-October from the stand at the boat launch in the National Park. This is a great way to explore the beautiful marsh side of the island. Rentals will not be available in case of any small craft safety advisories. The boat launch also rents clam rakes and bicycles.
This is the closest restaurant to the island, and its seasonal opening reflects its principal trade in tourist traffic (and just that it's a crab house). The crabs are fun, albeit not the best in the state, whereas the fried chicken really shines. For larger groups, the all you can eat specials of crabs, chicken, plus sides are great. Remember, true Maryland surf and turf is steamed Blue crabs plus skillet fried chicken!
This is just a no-frills roadside diner done well. It's just far off the beaten path to keep the prices nice and low. Breakfast served all day, with some fun regional specialties like crab omelets and scrapple omelets. The Pipeline, along with the Pipeline Burger, is their comically big heap of everything, topped with cheese and an extra dash of grease!
Some good beers on tap, along with decent bar food (especially the hot wings) complement the main attraction, which is the busy bar filled with HD-TVs to watch just about any game that's on. Maryland teams, naturally, are the local favorites.
Driving is the only practical way for individual travellers to get to the island (although it is very bicycle friendly). There are two access points for cars to get onto Assateague Island.
Read in the guideYou can take your vehicles to the State Park parking lot, or into the National Park to the North Ocean Beach lot, or as far south as South Ocean Beach.
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