Corolla to the Cap
As you have already noticed, I have been building a camper. Well that camper has a purpose, and that's to camp! So its time for a trip report with the new, albeit unfinished, Flip Pac camper. I have titled this trip Corolla to the Cap but we have a few side trips as well. Hopefully the pictures will give you a sense of what its like to run the entire length of the Outer Banks. You will not see any pictures of to many hotels or strip malls, just the parts of OBX I want to remember.
We have traveled Corolla to the Cap three times now. The pictures below are a culmination of all three trips. I was never planning to right up anything like this so I have pieced together what I could after the fact.
So you might be asking what is Corolla and the Cape. The Cape I refer to is not Cape horn or Cape Town. It's Cape Lookout National Seashore, the Southern most point on the Outer Banks. Corolla, North Carolina is the furthest Northern community of the Outer banks. Corolla is just south of Virginia's False Cape State Park. The trip from Corolla to the Cap takes about 3 days to do it right. It's about 170 miles just to drive it with no off-roading. Add in the Corolla 4wd beach and all the access roads from Ocracoke, Oregon Inlet, Hatteras and the Core banks and your looking at well over another 100 miles off road. You will need to take 3 ferries.
With the beach, solitude, camping and wild horses in our thoughts we head east from our SW Ohio home town. It's about 700 miles for us, so we split the driving into two days. On the second day, as we cross the Wright Memorial Bridge, we get a taste of the salt air. We are in luck as the traffic is light on the bridge. Plan accordingly to hit the bridge at a good time. At times the back up can be hours. About half way across the Bridge, I remind my three girls that the Wright Brothers are from Dayton Ohio!
Now it gets good! NC Highway 12 north here we come! We head North on HW 12 through Southern Shores and Duck NC on our way to Corolla NC. In the town of Corolla we get some last minute food and supplies, air down our tires and then hit the four-wheel drive beach.
Low tide is the best time to come up the coast on the beach for most 4wd trucks. But its OK about anytime, you just might end up having to drive in the deeper sand up off the water line. And the churned up sand can get deep. We have rescued plenty of trucks, a few Hondas and a mini van or two. Not to the liking of the local towing company, they get $100-$300 per tow. And that price is just to get you un-stuck! One gentleman from Australia owes me a beer if I ever run into him down under. He was very grateful to get his brother in laws borrowed Pontiac Montana out of the sand!
Once you are off the beach and on the back roads, you can navigate for what seems to be hundreds of miles. These sand roads lead to the only place to stay on the beach; you guessed it, beach rental homes. No camping is allowed in this area at all. As you explore the back roads be VERY careful of the water crossings or the “mud holes”. They have been known to be very deep! The deepest I went through seemed to be about 2-3 feet deep. But I went around them when I could.
So the next best thing to camping…..and the only thing in Corolla.
The horses were walking by in the photo. That's what everyone is looking at.
What I enjoy about coming to Corolla is the lack of any retail anything! No gas stations, strip malls, roads and no Wal-Mart! Just beach and the beach homes over the dunes. Oh and one more thing…..WILD HORSES!
Just about every day we “camp out” on the beach and do what most do while at the beach.
