Start of the Woodland Trail at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
Virginia Hiking Trails main page
Length: 2-mile loop
Time: 1 hour (walk), 20 minutes (bike). Includes Bivalve Trail hike.
Difficulty: Easy (biking or hiking)
Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge trail map (click to enlarge)
The Woodland Trail has its own parking lot, which is located off of Beach Road, the main road through the Virginia unit of Assateague Island National Seashore (technically Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge). Signs point the way. The trail is a paved path, and it is flat and easy to hike or bike. It is one of the few paved paths in the park that has any shade, though there are plenty of open sections as well.
Typical terrain of the Woodland Trail at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
The main purpose of Woodland Trail is its marsh observation deck that is supposedly one of the better places to see wild horses at the Virginia end of Assateague Island. The horses in Virginia are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department and are kept corralled. The area they can roam is large, and part of that land is the marsh along the trail. I did not see the horses, but two women who were starting the trail just as I finished told me—when I saw them later—that they saw horses. It was just a 30-minute window between horses for them and no horses for me.
The aforementioned overlook is at the end of a short boardwalk that branches off the main trail. For those just wanting to get to the overlook with hopes of seeing the horses, the quickest way is to stay to the right when you reach the loop portion of the trail and hike in the counterclockwise direction. The observation deck is at the end of the first side trail you come to, which is easy to identify because it is a boardwalk. It is about .6 mile from the start of the hike. If you are biking the Woodland Trail, no bikes are allowed on the boardwalk, but a bike rack is located at the start.
Viewing platform on the Woodland Trail overlooks the salt marsh at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
Salt marsh at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge
Instead of just hiking to the observation deck and back, I suggest taking the rest of the trail (especially if you are on a bike) because you will come to the Bivalve Trail on the other side of the loop. This is the only trail in the park with access to Toms Cove. Doing the entire loop and the Bivalve Trail adds an extra mile to the journey.
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Last updated on October 4, 2023
