The second weekend of September Dave and I spent on Chincoteague Island – Virginia’s only resort Island. Located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Chincoteague is the gateway to the Virginia portion of Assateague Island, home of the famous Chincoteague Wild Ponies. We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and the beauty of the unspoiled nature of the island, chilling on the beach and viewing a spectacular sunset over the Chincoteague Bay.
The Waterside Inn Hotel, where we stayed, has own private pier which is available at any time for the guests. View of hotel from the pier.
After checking in at the hotel and exploring its pier, Dave and I headed to the beach. We were looking forward to the wild beach, which is so different from the big city beach resorts. This beach is not commercialized at all.
It is a nice sandy beach with a lot of sea shells in some parts. There is a fee to get on Assateague Island, where the beach and wildlife refuge are located. The beach gets busy, but not overcrowded – there is plenty of real estate to spread out on. It seems like flying kites are popular on the beach.
Chincoteague Island is mostly tourist areas and private housing. It is mostly bay and salt marshes, but this is good for boating, fishing, and crabbing. Its a nice mixture of tourist stuff and just a laid back beach town. In Chincoteague there are no high-rises, board walks, or traffic jams.
There are lots of cute places to visit, decent food, and you can bike most of the island. Here are some pictures of the town streets taken from the car. We passed a couple of mini-golf courses like this one with a mini-lighthouse.
Town’s stores and local businesses along the street.
Numerous bikes and scooters are available for rent and for sale.
Many beachwear stores and restaurants are along the main street.
The Assateague Lighthouse is located on the Virginia portion of Assateague Island, approximately 1/4 mile away from Chincoteague Island. It took us about 5 minutes to drive there from Chincoteague. The lighthouse can be accessed from the first parking lot on the right after entering Assateague Island. We parked our car and took the trail to the Assateague Lighthouse, which is an active navigational aid and is in the National Register of Historic places.
It was an easy hike to see the lighthouse. The lighthouse was fully restored this year, but hadn’t reopened yet. Normally, the lighthouse is open during the summer months to allow visitors to climb the stairs to the lantern room. However, due to construction hazards, the lighthouse remained closed to visitors until October 5, 2013 according to the official site.
After visiting the lighthouse, we walked around on the trails for a while, and then relaxed on the beach. The National Wildlife Refuge at Assateague is an excellent place for bird watching and outdoor activities. The Marsh Trail is a .5 mile looping trail along the Wildlife Loop.
I saw grasshoppers before, but I have never seen a grasshopper as huge as this one on the bench.
This unpaved trail, open only to walkers, includes an observation platform overlooking Snow Goose Pool, which was dried up due to unusually dry weather.
Because of its position on the Atlantic Flyway, Assateague Island is an ideal place for birds to rest and refuel during migration. Thousands of brant, geese, and ducks spend their winter on the refuge. Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, visitors will find many herons and egrets in the shallow ponds on Assateague Island. Some of the popular sites to observe birds are at Swan Cove Pool along the Beach Road, where we stopped as well.
Herons and egrets can be seen in the borrow ditches around the refuge, and the hunting blind in Tom’s Cove, near Beach Road. It is a favored perch for some birds, including double-crested cormorants.
Chincoteague Island is known for its incredible sunsets, so we decided not to miss this opportunity and to watch the sunset from a deck bar. In addition to the dive atmosphere of this place, the bar deck faced West, which means… Beautiful sunsets. We got a table outside, ordered seafood for dinner and enjoyed the sunset. The crab cakes were delicious (pure crab meat) and the sunset was AWESOME! It was a very romantic evening, despite the karaoke. 🙂
There is definitely plenty of birds on the island, especially ducks, which we saw almost everywhere. Some ducks near bar deck.
Some ducks crossing the street (from the car).
Some ducks near our balcony at the hotel. 🙂
