With fall quickly changing to winter it's nice to get outdoors while there's still daylight. This week on the blog we'll be highlighting a few easy and enjoyable Eastern North Carolina hikes (with water access in case you want to sneak the kayak along).
The first is the Cedar Point Tideland Trail, located in the Cedar Point Recreation Area, just off the highway near the mouth of the White Oak River. This hike is near Swansboro, the town of Cedar Point, and not too far from the bridge that takes you to Emerald Isle.
The parking lot for the trail and boat ramp includes numurous spots for cars, trucks, and trailers. Small-craft flat-bottomed motorized and non-motorized boats (canoes & kayaks) shove off from the boat ramp near the end of the lot. Fresh water and bathrooms are located nearby.
Two trails wind through coastal forest and on boardwalks over the salt marsh. The wetlands are host to a variety of plants and animals including deer, raccoons, and several bird species. Both trails are short - .6 & 1.3 miles.
The Cedar Point Tideland Trail is a quick hike near the water with big opportunities for paddling. The boat ramp here is a great launch point for exploring nearby Jones Island (ETC post coming soon) and gives you sheltered access to the Intracoastal Waterway. The Cedar Point campground, open all year, is a nice stopover on paddling trips coming down the White Oak River (also an ETC post coming soon!). Check out the quick links below for more information on the Cedar Point Tideland Trail and stay tuned to the blog this week for a few more Eastern North Carolina Coastal trails!
~Paul & Amber ETC Cedar Point Recreation Area brochure Other Boat ramps in Carteret County Forest Service Site with more info
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It's no secret, I love sand dunes. I often dream of taking an epic American sand dune tour. Oh man, it would be sandy. Sand in my shoes. Sand in my ears. And, despite my best efforts to keep it out, no matter what - sand in the car...lots of sand in the car. There's more dunes in the ol' US-of-A than you think. Luckily for us, we don't have to travel too far to start the trip (or at least pretend we're starting the trip).
Welcome to Jockey's Ridge State Park, a group of dunes located in North Carolina's Outer Banks. The constant wind here has, over many years, blown all of these little grains of sand together for your hiking, kiting, sand boarding, and flying enjoyment. Wait a second, flying? It's a great little state park with a big bonus - you can fly here. Or, at least, learn how to glide, or maybe fall gracefully, or just plain crash a big glider off a giant sand dune.
The park includes over 400 acres of dunes and woods and is located in North Carolina's Outer Banks in Nags Head, just minutes from the amazing (and soon to be blogged about here on ETC) Wright Brothers National Memorial. The Outer Banks are one of the many groups of barrier islands that dot up and down the Atlantic coast. The wind here is good and the sand makes for a softer landing - especially if you happen to trial-and-error-crash your glider hundreds of times, just like the Wright brothers did back in the early 1900s.
We didn't take a gliding lesson on our visit, but we hiked (and took a few toy pics). When you arrive there's a visitor's center and a short boardwalk trail out to an overlook. After that, there's lots of sand to explore. It turns out that Jockey's Ridge is the tallest natural dune system in the Eastern US. You get a great view from the top of the big dune - it's between 80 and 100 feet tall!
So, with just a few paragraphs and pictures, I hope we've established that Jockey's Ridge State Park is worthy of being included in our (or your) future great American sand dune tour. Until that officially begins, we can always head out to Jockey's Ridge to practice our hiking/sand-boarding/kiting/& flying. And maybe, just maybe, with a little practice clicking our heels together, we'll keep at least some of the sand out of the car!
~Paul, Amber, Sis, Dad, Susan ETC Fun Facts! *If needed, call the park ahead to arrange a handicap accessible ride to the top of the dunes. *While hiking, imagine you're walking over a buried mini-golf course. *Eat nearby at the best Mexican restaurant on the planet. *Make sure to wear shoes - this sand is hot like fire in the summer. Links! Book some gliding lessons at the park {Bam!} Check out a PDF map of the park {Pow!} Check for events at the park {Boom!} Really long story short: we survived Kansas. Our driving party that started in the Pacific Northwest took us through gorgeous forests, mountains, valleys, dunes, and more…and then it stopped…or at least the mountains, forests, valleys, and dunes stopped. The road kept going…through the seemingly endless Great Plains. All US road trips change when you hit the Great Plains, it doesn't matter which way you're headed across them. It gets boring. Sleepy. Sleepy with a lack of Starbucks. Never-ending. The woosh! of a semi-truck passing you on a stormy, flat, interstate. Speaking of the interstate, one thing that made our Great Plains driving days better was driving on highways instead. For a lot of people, this is a terrible idea. It takes longer, the speed limit's lower, small speed-trap towns are everywhere, and a giant combine will definitely be hogging the road. Wow, after writing that, it really does seem like a horrible idea. For us, the bad parts of driving on highways are about equal to the bad parts of driving on the interstate. One of the complaints is really a double-edged sword; slowing-down for small towns is a great way to keep yourself from getting bored & drowsy. There's strange country stuff to look at around every turn. You meet more people. Gas stations are unique. So we drove. We loved it. We arrived in one of my home states: Missouri (I claim 3 home states now: South Dakota, Missouri, and Washington state). We were taking a break from the road and visiting the Pops in the Ozarks. We spent some time exploring 3 locations in the area: Onondaga Cave State Park, Kayaking along the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, & Maramec Spring Park. Today, a quick visit to the cave! I used to hate caves, but since adventuring in the Pacific Northwest and blogging here on ETC, I've really enjoyed exploring anywhere with historical meaning. Since I've learned so much from trips in the Northwest, it's great to learn what was happening in the Midwest around the same time (the 1800s). Stories of this cave - how it came to be, early exploration, the abundance of caves in Missouri, what 19th century settlers used them for and extracted from them - it's all here. Tours are cheap, guides are super smart about the area, and a small museum has cool images from 1800s Onondaga, located in the visitor center. A pretty cool visit (cave joke).
~Paul, Amber, Dad ETC Onondaga Cave State Park |
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