Corolla to Ocracoke Island

[magaw]

First real post, so here it goes.

Point of Origin: a little west of Charleston West Virginia

Goals: Drive the complete length of the Outer Banks



See the wild horses above Corolla
Journey south and ride the ferry to Ocracoke Island and see the light house
Try the food at some of the local dives and restaurants

Length of stay: five nights six days

Vehicle: 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (with some modifications)



Who went?
These guys:



and this Dude:



The driver on this trip was me. here I am standing in front of what appears to be a 4000 year old bonsai tree, who knows? (I kept meaning to ask a local what kind of tree this was but never got around to it)



We set up out base camp at "Adventure Bound Campground and International Hostel, in Kitty Hawk. It was a good central location since we would be going both north and south to see everything that was on the agenda.







The extra bonus at this campground was that they had peacocks, just roaming around the campsites. Aside from them being extremely noisy they added quite the unexpected element to this camping trip. Apparently it was mating season for peacocks, lol. Instead of making a clucking or quacking or gobbling noise like i would have imagined, they made a whole array of sounds ranging from a cat in heat to a donkey to even a fire truck (no exaggeration)





More about this in a day or two,...its getting late

 

[4x4x4doors]

Watching and also wondering when you went.

 

[magaw]

We left for The OBX last Wednesday. Thanks for taking a look.

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Awesome... We're heading to Corolla on June 9th for a similar trip (thought probably won't head as far south)... It will be nice to see your thoughts/pictures.

Don

-

 

[magaw]

I will try to post more tonight

Josh

 

[Foy]

The "mystery tree".........

......is a live oak, or it sure looks like one. Looks to be seriously in distress, but looks like a garden variety live oak.

Looking forward to the rest of the TR and pics.

Foy

 

[gm13]

I once took a Toyota Corolla to Ocracoke, but this is different One of my favorite sandy spots on the eastern seaboard. Looking forward to more pics.

 

[magaw]

OBX Continued

So once we had our camp set up we decided to roll down to Oregon Inlet to catch some rays and get some first hand information about the beach driving situation. Sure enough you have to pay $50 for a three day pass and a lot of ramp closures , but no worries we just decided that we would head north the next morning to the 4x4 beaches above Corolla where there was a lot more continuous sand driving that did not require the pass, not to mention I wanted everyone to have a chance to see the wild horses.



Even though they just look like regular horses, cruising around the beach houses, I have to say that their story is amazing. They are descendants of horses from Spanish ship wrecks that happened before America was colonized.



Its interesting how all of these beach houses are so remote. The only way to get to them is by driving several miles of sand and the streets are literally on top of the sand dunes. Needless to say everyone had a great time exploring the area and chilling on the beach







Next on out list was some of this:



and some of this:



which were partaken of at "The Rundown Cafe". The owners pride themselves on being world travelers and bring back recipes from all over the globe. The food was excellent. However i did play it safe and went with the fish tacos, black beans and coconut rice. Now back to camp



so that we could get ready for another day of this:





More Later

Josh

 

[4x4x4doors]

Magaw: Minor point of clarification. The NPS passes are $50 for 7 days, not 3. (Of course, if you're only there for 1 day, its $50 for 1 day!)

Keep sharing. I'm still reading and watching!

 

[ruffshod67]

very nice

 

[magaw]

Magaw: Minor point of clarification. The NPS passes are $50 for 7 days, not 3. (Of course, if you're only there for 1 day, its $50 for 1 day!)

Keep sharing. I'm still reading and watching!

You know, that makes a lot more sense. I am 100% sure that the nps officer told me $50 for three days, but I guess there is always that possibility of human error and she may have just had a little slip of the tongue. This is Good News! and I wish that i had gotten the correct information because I'll be honest I was a little bent out of shape about the strange price for such an odd amount of days when most people vacation for at least a week. This is the map that the girl in the nps office gave me, which shows ramp closure information. All of the areas marked in solid green were open to beach driving, at the time we were there.

 

[magaw]

a little more

So, after a descent night of sleep, we decided to go to Jockey's Ridge state park and see what all of the fuss was about.





I have to say that it is Amazing. Seeing it from the road did not do it any justice. Once you climb to the top and realize how massive these dunes are, you almost feel like you are in some kind of desert or something. If only they had camel rides to go along with the hang gliding lessons! After that, we played it simple and settled on some North Carolina BBQ for lunch and spent the rest of the day fishing at Nags Head Pier (with no luck). Then it was back to the camp for some grilled pork tenderloin and pico de gallo.



After another peacock infused restless night, and breakfast with Lorne and Kathy





we said our goodbyes, as they were heading back home a day early

Next up, heading south to Ocracoke Island



waiting patiently to board the ferry, not knowing what to expect out of our 45 minute ferry ride with a storm rolling in. We tried twice to get a video of us boarding the ferry, with no luck. silly iphones!.

 

[Bretthn]

We are doing the same thing in 3 weeks. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks for posting!

 

[magaw]

We are doing the same thing in 3 weeks. Looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for looking. Great build thread, by the way. I intend to do one on mine, eventually

 

[magaw]

Ocracoke Ferry

Every thing went smooth with boarding, however, they do tamp everyone in close.







Amazingly the seagulls chase the ferry for the entire 45 minute ride. Some of the passengers were throwing bread up and watching them swoop down to catch it. Then the storm hit, so we scrambled back inside of the Jeep. When we looked at the GPS we cracked up, because it was showing us driving on nothing but water, definitely a picture worthy moment.



All in all, the storm turned out drama free and let up just in time to unload. We decided to drive the length of the island first, just to get a good feel of what it had to offer and then make stops at our points of interest on the way back towards the ferry.

Ocracoke Light House





Then it was off to a remote section of beach, that we had scoped out earlier on the drive south from the ferry docks.



Its nice to know that there are still strands of beach that aren't cluttered with hotels and businesses. If you looked north on this section of beach, there was nothing but water, sand and dunes, as far as the eye could see.

Now it was back to this guy



and then back north to Kitty Hawk to get on last peacock infused night of sleep before the nine and a half hour drive home. The End!