Maryland Road Trip: Wild Horses And Haunted Places

MARYLAND — Nothing says summer like a short road trip, a chance to put everything pressing aside and find new places to play. If you're looking to add some edge to your summer, the Assateague Island National Seashore is beckoning.

A 20-minute drive from Ocean City via Route 50 West, then left onto Road 611, Assateague Island is one of a handful of places in the United States where wild horses run freely.

The 100 or so wild horses make the trip to the 37-mile-long barrier island worth it on their own. They’re like the promise of summer and the freedom to just be. Right now, with new foals on the ground, is a great time to visit, but you should be able to see them through October.

These horses come from domesticated stock but have evolved over the years to survive scorching heat, abundant mosquitoes, stormy weather and poor-quality food on the remote, windswept barrier island.

As one story goes, the horses are survivors of a shipwreck off the Virginia coast. A more plausible explanation, according to the National Park Service, is that the Assateague horses are descendants of horses brought to barrier islands in the late 17th century by mainland owners to avoid fencing laws and taxation.

Regardless of how the horses got to the barrier island, it’s important for visitors to remember these are feral animals who live life on their terms. They’re a marvel to behold as they run on the beaches of their own windswept island and cool off in the surf. Numerous kayak and boat tours are available to watch them.

But keep your distance — a minimum of 40 feet, according to the park service. Don’t feed them. Last year, the park service had to relocate an aggressive stallion, Chip, who came to expect being fed by visitors and was uncooperative when park officials tried to herd him elsewhere. Since 2017, the stallion had been involved in more than half of the human-horse incidents.

Maryland and Virginia share a border on the island, with two-thirds of it in Maryland. If you’re able, check out the Chincoteague Pony Swim from July 19-21. The Virginia herd of horses is rounded up and swum to nearby Chincoteague Island and the 19th, and most of the foals are auctioned off to prevent too much inbreeding within the herd the following day. The remaining horses swim back on the 21st.

Assateague Island wasn’t an island at all until a storm in 1933. It was home to a handful of settlements in the 1850s, and various attempts to develop it have failed. The Maryland side of Assateague and the waters surrounding became a National Seashore on Sept. 21, 1965.

There’s plenty more to do there — backcountry camping, hiking, and canoeing and kayaking, for example.

Before you get there or on your way back from wherever you started, check out Berlin, where 47 individual structures are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

There’s plenty of whimsy there, too. The Mermaid Museum, for example, takes a deep dive into the mythology of mermaids. There are plenty of other places to document your trip with selfies, including before a giant fiberglass cowboy holding an ice cream cone as he guards the Frontier Town water park.

Or, if you dare, take the 1-5 mile Ghost Walk past supposedly haunted sites where visitors will hear stories about a spirit hiding in the basement of an antique store, the Lady in White who stands by the bank and apparitions of people long dead who roam the streets of Berlin. The tour will also walk past the circa 1895 Hotel Atlantic, which has five ghost stories attached to it, including one involving a little girl said to occasionally interact with guests.

If you’re staying overnight and your credit card can stand it, Hotel Atlantic is a great place to consider — with or without paranormal activity, which, for the record, the hotel doesn’t shy away from.

Parts of “Runaway Bride” were filmed there, and one of the suites is called “The Richard Gere Room” after the actor whose character stayed there in the movie. It’s one of 18 rooms with Victorian-period accommodations.

Berlin itself is rich in history, with 47 individual structures noted on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a designated Arts & Entertainment District, and a strong Main Street organization.