Chincoteague & Assateague Island Guide

Out on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, wild ponies roam the salt marshes and beaches of Assateague Island, and the story around them is pure Americana. Every July, on the last Wednesday, the “Saltwater Cowboys” of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company swim the herd across the narrow channel from Assateague to Chincoteague at slack tide, where the foals are auctioned to keep the herd healthy — a tradition immortalized in the 1947 children’s book Misty of Chincoteague. The rest of the year it’s a gorgeous, low-key barrier-island refuge: the ponies grazing the marsh, a candy-striped lighthouse, wide empty beach, and some of the best birding and oystering on the coast.