Assateague is what the Delaware beaches looked like before any of them had a boardwalk. No commercial strip, no high-rises — just dunes, salt marsh and the wild horses that have run the island for centuries and clearly know it.
It rewards patience more than any other stop on this coast. Low tide opens up wide flats where the horses wander down to graze on marsh grass, and a quiet early morning here — tent still damp, coffee still hot — is one of the few genuinely wild mornings left on the whole Mid-Atlantic shoreline.
It's one of the few genuinely wild mornings left on the whole Mid-Atlantic shoreline.
Low tide, early morning, is when the horses come down off the dunes to graze the flats — give the island a few unhurried hours and it usually delivers.