Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge - Will we see the wild ponies?

 After our rainy day at Virginia Beach, we were ready for a blue-sky beach day--and we got one! We pulled out of our boondocking spot overlooking the river, and headed straight north on highway 13 to our next destination for the day--Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Actually, we made a stop on the way at the little grocery store in Oak Hall. We left the motor home parked here, while we drove the pickup the 15 miles to the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge. The main wildlife that people come to see are the wild ponies, and we sure hoped that we would get to see some of them today. There is a difference of opinion of where these horses originated. Some think they swam ashore from a Spanish ship wreck, while others think the island was a 17th century corral, and the horses were abandoned by their original owner. Either way, wild ponies have been living on this narrow 37-mile-long island for hundreds of years. We decided that our plan of attack to see the ponies today was to use our bicycles to tour the park.

We started on the Woodland Trail, where the trees are tall and beautiful.

We had been warned at the visitor center that the bugs would be bad in the forest, and they were right. So we sprayed down with bug spray and continued on our quest to find wild horses.

We stopped in at Tom's Cove for our first view of the bay. No horses here, and the bugs convinced us to get back on our bikes.

We stopped in at the viewing spot where wild ponies are often seen. Even though these horses are wild, they are still fenced into certain parts of the refuge. That makes them a little less "wild" to us. Because other people at the viewpoint pointed it out to us, we saw our first Chincoteague stallion. He's just a dot in the picture below, far behind the fence. Does that really count?

The main road of the park is the Wildlife Loop, a paved 3.2-mile road that circles a sizable lake. The road is closed to vehicular traffic until noon. So that means that we could ride our bikes here without dodging cars.

Half-way around the loop is a bike spur trail that leads towards the ocean. We parked our bikes with about 30 other bikers, thinking that the beach was going to be crowded.

It was not! In just a short walk from the entrance, we had a long stretch of white sand all to ourselves! We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

Denisa was glad to see shells on the beach, and she set about doing what she always does in these circumstances. She picks up some of her favorite shells, and then uses them to spell something in the sand.

Today's word is "Chinco" because let's face it--Chincoteague is too darn long to spell with shells.

While Denisa is playing with shells, Mark is off chasing ghost crabs before they can scamper away into their holes.

He photographed them in all their different poses. This is the "I'll flatten myself as low as possible so maybe he won't see me" pose.

Then there's the "I'll prance on my tippy-toes and flash my large right pincher to scare him away" pose.

But Mark's favorite picture was a ghost crab in the foreground, with Denisa hunting for shells in the background.

While Denisa was using only the bigger shells, we saw thousands of these tiny colorful shells with each incoming wave.

Back on our bicycles, we finished the loop and took some pictures of the birds hanging out in the fresh water lake of the refuge. So far our only good wildlife sighting are of crabs and birds--not wild ponies.

We had read that the gravel service road off the paved loop was also open to bicycles. So we decided to make the additional 5-mile ride to this less-visited part of the refuge. It's getting warmer now, and it's tough to pedal through this gravel surface. Denisa wasn't sure that this detour was a good idea.

But it allowed us to go even further up the coastline, where only the more adventurous park visitors roam.

More deserted beach with not a single person in sight. We have been blessed with blue sky and beautifully cool temperatures here on the coast! But will we see the wild ponies?

Wow! We are so lucky to have so much beautiful beach all to ourselves. We have surely wandered into another of God's wonders!

We'd ridden 11.4 miles by the time we finished our circle back to the pickup. Then we finished exploring the refuge in the pickup. That would include stopping in at the only beach that visitors can drive to. After spending time at our pristine bike-in beaches, we didn't stay long here with the crowds.

We also made a quick hike up to Assateague Lighthouse. Denisa is a sucker for a lighthouse, and this was a nice one.

As we made the drive towards the exit, we saw a traffic jam on the road ahead. That could only mean one thing--wild ponies!

We got into the middle of the traffic jam and found a parking spot beside the fence so we could take pictures. It almost seems like cheating to "find" wild ponies that are fenced in. But we were glad that they chose to graze close to the fence to give the visitors a photo opportunity. These horses are managed by the Volunteer Fire Department of the town of Chincoteague, Virginia. They know that the grass here will only support around 150 horses. So each July (since 1923) they have a round-up, where the wild horses will swim across a narrow channel from this island into the town of Chincoteague. Thousands of people will be lined up to watch the "pony swim." The wild ponies are checked over by a veterinarian, and the colts will be auctioned off in the fire department's main fundraiser of the year.

Now that we have finally seen the wild ponies, we can leave the island and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. After we went over the bridge, we made a couple stops in the town of Chincoteague. This little town is situated on an island between the larger barrier island (where the wildlife refuge is) and the mainland. Our first stop was at the statue of "Misty of Chincoteague." Marguerite Henry wrote a children's book in 1946 about the colt her family bought at the Chincoteague auction. Denisa remembers reading this book as a child. At the time she never knew that she would some day visit this island and see those wild ponies!

Our last stop in the town of Chincoteague was at the beach chairs spelling out LOVE.

We're feeling the love as we make our last stop in Virginia today. It was a great last stop at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge--where we did see the wild ponies!