Barrier-island country — a ridge of sand the ocean is always rebuilding and moving. Nothing here holds still for long.
Take a good look at the ground you're driving on, because it will not be in this exact spot forever. Assateague is a barrier island — a long, low ridge of sand thrown up by the ocean to take the brunt of the waves so the mainland behind it doesn't have to. And a barrier island is not solid land. It's more like a slow wave itself.
Here's how it works. In big storms, the sea washes clean over the low spots and carries sand from the ocean side to the bay side — a process called overwash. Do that over and over, decade after decade, and the whole island literally crawls landward, toward the mainland, rolling over itself like a tread on a tank. Assateague is moving west, a little at a time, and there is no stopping it. People have tried. Boone will tell you how that turned out.
So everything you see — the dunes, the road, the campsites — sits on sand that's on the move. It makes this one of the wildest, least tamed places on the whole East Coast. Enjoy it exactly as it is today, because today's version is the only one there'll ever be.
Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0
