itOpened Blog · Cancellation Data
Assateague Campground, Counted
Assateague's log has a hard edge no other campground in this series has shown. Since Oct 29, 10:54 PM ET our scanners have confirmed 262 openings at the campground on Assateague Island — and every stay in that flow begins between 2026-11-01 and 2026-11-16, which is to say inside the final fifteen days of the reservation season. Per the National Park Service, reservations at Assateague are required from March 15 through November 15 and open six months ahead; on November 16 the walk-in sites close for winter and Oceanside Loop 2 drops to first-come, first-served. What our log captured is the last of the reservable year draining out through cancellations — 178 oceanside openings and 82 bayside openings, from 113 distinct campsites of the 160 the Recreation.gov directory lists, on a median 11h 00m clock. After November 15, this hunt changes species: no scanner can watch a first-come queue at a ranger station.
Quick answers
- How many Assateague campsite openings are there?
- 262 confirmed openings since Oct 29, 10:54 PM ET — from 113 distinct campsites, for stays 2026-11-01 – 2026-11-16. That is 1.7% of every non-Cape-Point opening in our log, from a single barrier-island campground.
- How long do Assateague openings last?
- A median 11h 00m across 212 completed cycles — an overnight-scale clock, not a minutes-scale one. Half of everything Assateague handed back was still bookable roughly half a day later, and half was gone.
- How far ahead do Assateague openings appear?
- A median 3 days before the stay, and 0 were same-day openings. The flow hugs the near calendar because the season itself is ending: every stay begins by Nov 15, the last day of the reservation season.
- What changes at Assateague on November 16?
- Per the National Park Service: Oceanside Loop 1 and the walk-in sites close from November 16 through March 14, Loop 2 becomes first-come, first-served, and reservations remain in force for the bayside sites and group sites, which are reservable year-round per Recreation.gov.
Watch it with itOpened
Assateague's reservable season just ended — the bayside flow has not.
Assateague produced 262 confirmed openings in the measurement window — from 113 of its 160 sites, surviving a median 11h 00m — and its bayside loops stay reservable all winter. Our scanners poll the campground around the clock and text you when the next opening confirms.
Proof, from our own scanners: 262 confirmed openings at Assateague since Oct 29, 2026 — each one re-verified before logging. See the live cancellation index.
Watch Assateague openingsFree to start. We never book, hold, or resell — you book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. Fees pay for monitoring; openings are first-come and cannot be guaranteed.
The measurement, in one block
Headline: 262 confirmed openings at Assateague Island National Seashore Campground from 113 distinct campsites; median lead 3 days; median survival 11h 00m across 212 completed cycles; single nights 127 (48.5%); stays of 3+ nights 51 (19.5%); oceanside 178, bayside 82, other loops 2.
As of Nov 11, 05:38 AM ET — measurement window Oct 29, 10:54 PM ET – Nov 11, 05:38 AM ET (Eastern); stays 2026-11-01 – 2026-11-16.
Method: confirmed openings from the production alert log (each re-fetched and verified before logging), filtered to the Assateague Island facility; survival from the closure log's completed, unambiguous life cycles for the same facility; lead = stay start date minus detection date (Eastern).
One facility row, split by the island's two camping faces:
| Side | Confirmed openings | Distinct campsites |
|---|---|---|
| Oceanside loops (drive-in Loops 1–2, walk-in, group) | 178 | 75 |
| Bayside loops (A–C) | 82 | 36 |
| Equestrian sites | 2 | 2 |
Assateague is a 37-mile barrier island on the Atlantic Coast of Maryland and Virginia, famed — Recreation.gov's word, and the correct one — for its wild horses. Camping exists only in the island's Maryland district, per the National Park Service, in oceanside drive-in and walk-in loops behind the dunes and bayside loops on the calmer Sinepuxent Bay side. The directory lists 160 campsites in all. In the measurement window, 113 of them surfaced as an opening at least once. The sold-out sign on this campground, like every campground in this series, is a snapshot; the film looks like this post.
The season ends on November 15
No campground we have counted carries its deadline inside its own data the way Assateague does. The deepest stay date in its log is 2026-11-16 — a single stay beginning the morning after the reservation season closes — and the next deepest are the season's final weekend: the heaviest stay dates are Nov 06 (43); Nov 13 (41); Nov 07 (27). That shape is exactly what a hard administrative edge produces. Trips booked six months ago for the season's last days get cancelled as the weather turns and plans firm up, and because no new reservable inventory exists beyond November 15 for the oceanside individual sites, the whole autumn flow compresses into the first half of November.
The practical consequence is a calendar cliff of a different kind than the release cliffs measured at Kipahulu or Big Meadows. There, a schedule stacks openings onto one lead time. Here, a season boundary stacks stays onto one fortnight — and then, for the walk-in and Loop 1 camper, the reservable campground simply ends. What continues past November 15 in our log's terms is the bayside side: bayside individual sites are reservable year-round per Recreation.gov, and 82 of this flow already came from those loops.
Two campgrounds sharing one gate
The split matters because the two sides sell different nights. Oceanside produced 178 openings from 75 sites — the beach side, where the walk-in sites sit 100–200 feet from their parking areas per the Park Service and where demand concentrates in season. Bayside produced 82 from 36 sites, on the bay side that stays reservable all winter. A hunter who will take either side is fishing a flow of 262; a hunter fixed on the ocean side is fishing 178 of it, and after November 15, for the individual oceanside sites, is not fishing reservations at all — Loop 2 becomes a drive-up queue and the walk-in loops close until March 14.
The stay mix is the familiar fragment pattern, sharpened by the season's end: 127 single nights (48.5%), against a system-wide single-night share of 55.3%, and 51 stays of three nights or more (19.5%). Weekend gravity is strong — 129 of the 262 openings (49.2%) begin on a Friday or Saturday, the last weekends of the reservable year. The fragment-first rule from our single-night count applies unchanged: anchor on the stray Friday, and let the Saturday attach if it frees.
An eleven-hour clock
Assateague recycles at a median 11h 00m across 212 completed cycles — the same overnight scale as Bryce Canyon's North Campground in this wave, and a different world from Watchman's two-hour clock in the previous count. Labelled interpretation: a late-season island trip is a considered purchase — drive time, November weather on an exposed barrier island, no hookups — so a surfaced site waits longer for its match than a Zion basecamp site does. What is measured, not interpreted, is the spread: openings here routinely survive a working day, which makes Assateague one of the few campgrounds in this log where a twice-a-day manual check is a real strategy rather than a ritual. It remains a losing one against a full season of flow, but the clock is honest about the odds: 262 openings across fifteen stay-days is a flow, not a drought.
How to hunt the tail of the season
Set the watch before the trip firms up, not after: the median opening here surfaces just 3 days before the stay, so the productive watch window opens about a week out and peaks in the final 72 hours, when 0 same-day openings say the flow runs right up to the arrival morning. Take the fragment first — nearly half this flow is a single night. Hold both sides of the island in the watch if your gear allows it; the bayside flow is the only part of this campground that remains reservable once the season turns, and it produced 82 openings while the whole island was still in season. And know the boundary: from November 16, oceanside Loop 2 is first-come at the ranger station and the walk-in sites are closed — openings there will never appear in any scanner's log, ours included, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Watch it with itOpened
Assateague's reservable season just ended — the bayside flow has not.
Assateague produced 262 confirmed openings in the measurement window — from 113 of its 160 sites, surviving a median 11h 00m — and its bayside loops stay reservable all winter. Our scanners poll the campground around the clock and text you when the next opening confirms.
Proof, from our own scanners: 262 confirmed openings at Assateague since Oct 29, 2026 — each one re-verified before logging. See the live cancellation index.
Watch Assateague openingsFree to start. We never book, hold, or resell — you book it yourself, in your own account, at the normal price. Fees pay for monitoring; openings are first-come and cannot be guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions
Are reservations required at Assateague Island?
From March 15 through November 15, yes — per the National Park Service, reservations are required in that window and can be made six months in advance through Recreation.gov. Bayside individual sites and group sites are reservable year-round, per Recreation.gov.
How many campsites does Assateague Island have?
The Recreation.gov directory lists 160 campsites across its oceanside, bayside, group and equestrian loops. Our log recorded openings from 113 of them in the measurement window.
How long do Assateague cancellations last?
A median 11h 00m across 212 completed cycles in our log — an overnight-scale clock. Half were claimed within about eleven hours; half lasted longer.
Can you camp at Assateague in winter?
Yes, in reduced form: per the National Park Service, from November 16 through March 14 Oceanside Loop 2 is first-come, first-served, Loop 1 and the walk-in sites are closed, and bayside sites remain reservable.
Sources
- itOpened production scanner alert log (engine/alerts.jsonl), Oct 29, 10:54 PM ET – Nov 11, 05:38 AM ET: 17,389 confirmed openings in total, 14,987 excluding Cape Point Campground's 2,402 rolling-release alerts. Assateague Island National Seashore Campground: 262 openings (1.7% of the non-Cape total) from 113 distinct campsites; oceanside 178 from 75 sites, bayside 82 from 36 sites, equestrian 2; median lead 3 days; same-day 0; single nights 127 (48.5%); 3+ nights 51 (19.5%); Friday/Saturday starts 129 (49.2%); heaviest stay dates: Nov 06 (43); Nov 13 (41); Nov 07 (27); stays after Nov 15: 1; system-wide single-night share 8290 of 14,987 (55.3%). All figures computed from the log at build time.
- itOpened scanner closure log (engine/closures.jsonl), sample closing Nov 11, 05:38 AM ET: completed unambiguous cycles — Assateague n=212, median survival 11h 00m. Ambiguous records excluded; Cape Point excluded. Censoring note: completed cycles only — openings still live at build time are not in any median.
- National Park Service, Assateague Island National Seashore camping pages (nps.gov/asis; accessed 2026-11-11): camping is available only in the Maryland district; reservations are required from March 15 through November 15 and are available six months in advance; from November 16 through March 14 Oceanside Loop 1 and the walk-in sites are closed and Loop 2 is first-come, first-served.
- Recreation.gov facility listing for Assateague Island National Seashore Campground (facility 232507, via the itOpened directory database): 160 campsites in the directory; a 37-mile barrier island on the Atlantic Coast of Maryland and Virginia, famed for its wild horses; oceanside group and bayside individual sites reservable year-round; oceanside individual sites reservable March 15 – November 15.
- itOpened methodology (/methodology/): watch registry, two-poll confirmation standard, and watch window (stays from November 1, 2026 onward).
Every figure in this article traces to one of the sources above. If a number isn't sourced, we don't print it.
Last updated 2026-11-11.