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Henlopen State Park in Delaware and Assateague State Park in Maryland, May 2023
We had no specific plans for this trip, only reservations at two parks. Our goal was to relax with some biking and paddling.
The Adventure - This was our longest drive to date and the first trip with lithium batteries. We chose a route that consisted primarily of highways to avoid Amish buggies. Assateague is full sun camping with no hookups. Our batteries held their charge. We were extremely pleased and impressed with their performance.
The Ordeal - Our hot water heater stopped working intermittently. We continued to fool around with both propane and electric, plugging and unplugging the power to it, for another trip after this one. We tested both thermostat and ECO in hot water with a thermometer on our stove at home. Both appeared to work correctly. Eventually we replaced them anyway and the hot water heater has worked perfectly ever since.
Tips - Reservations at Henlopen and Assateague are difficult to get. Make your reservations as early as possible. Assateague has an automated wait list. Make your reservation IMMEDIATELY upon notification of any opening. Assateague state park and national park are adjacent to each other. The national park is even more difficult to reserve. Although some disagree, we think the state park RV sites are very similar to the national ones. More important, we are consistently able to get reservations at the state park and never at the national one. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (especially when the good in this case seems pretty similar to the perfect).
Cape Henlopen State Park
Cape Henlopen State Park
Camping at Cape Henlopen State Park offers a serene and shaded retreat amidst coastal beauty. We highly recommend it for the shade and the wide variety of things to do in and around the park. We were stunned to check in at the park office and receive a paddling map for the area. That is how much great paddling they have! We paddled a canal stretching between Lewes and Rehoboth and also in the bay. We loved the park beach access point designed to be reached primarily by bike. There was almost no one at the beach with us! Lewes and Rehoboth Beach are easy bike rides from the campground. We had a nice time riding through the nature preserve and getting lunch at Rehoboth (although we rode home in rain). We poked around Fort Miles, which is on park property, and learned the purpose of the concrete towers along the coastline: triangulation to enable the big guns at Fort Miles to shoot at foreign boats during WWII. We climbed the concrete tower in the park and looked at the bunker museum and the guns that remain at Fort Miles.
Assateague State Park
Assateague State Park immerses you in the untamed beauty of the barrier island. Our site was on the end of a loop with just the campground road and then a dune between us and the ocean. Hearing ocean waves and seeing wild ponies at your site are amazing camping experiences. We filled our days sitting on the beach and riding bikes. The campground has a launch point for paddling in the bay. There are also campsites available along the bay shore. Although Assateague is known for horrible biting flies when the wind comes from the mainland, we had no trouble at all during this trip.
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