Assateague Island National Seashore Asks NPS To Eliminate Restrictions On Beach Driving

By

Justin Housman

Published Date

February 5, 2025

Trucks line up at the entrance to Assateague Island National Seashore in this screenshot from a National Park Service video

Trucks line up at the entrance to Assateague Island National Seashore / NPS

If the National Park Service agrees to implement a proposed rule change, trucks of nearly any size will soon be allowed to drive on the beach at Assateague Island National Seashore. Beach driving at Assateague predates the existence of the seashore as an NPS unit and is a very popular form of recreation there today. According to the Federal Register, the Park Service writes about 1,000 permits annually for Over-Sand Vehicle use.

The seashore recently filed a proposal with the Federal Register outlining the request to eliminate size restrictions. Currently, vehicles are limited to less than 10,000 pounds, must be less than 26 feet long, and eight feet wide, and have at least seven inches of ground clearance to be allowed an OSV permit at the seashore. If the proposal is approved, there would be no weight or size limits, other than the width of the gate leading to the beach.

Those rules were put in place by the NPS in 1976, though it's not entirely clear what they were based on. The proposal to eliminate size requirements for OSV permits, recently added to the Federal Register, mentions two bridges that once connected sections of park property that are no longer used and may have been too light to support more than 10,000 pounds. Regardless, the proposal states the rules are simply no longer necessary.

The proposal specifically names trucks like the Ford F-250 and Ford F-450, the GMC Sierra 2500HD, the Chevy Silverado 2500HD Work Truck, and the Ram 2500 Tradesman as being over 10,000 pounds and potentially eligibile for a beach permit.

Abolishing the rules could be a moneymaker for the park. It costs $110 for a permit to drive on the beach, but $200 for a permit to drive and camp on the sand. Many of these larger vehciles are easily outfitted for camping expeditions.

Assateague expects no impacts to the environment. The Park Service regularly drives work vehicles over 10,000 pounds on the beach, and tidal changes tend to self-repair tracks made in the sand, according to the proposal.

Public comments regarding the proposal are being accepted through 11:59 p.m. ET on March 18, 2025. Comments can be left here, using the Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) 1024-AE90.

Stories about:

Assateague Island National Seashore

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