Two years ago I took a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with two of my college friends and have been singing the praises of OBX ever since. I had one last week of freedom before returning to the office life full-time, so Jay and I decided to spend it camping in the Outer Banks.
We spent our first night at the National Park Service campground at Oregon Inlet, which is a few miles south of Nags Head. Most of the tourists had cleared out of OBX following Labor Day, so the campground was rather empty.
The beach near our campground
The next day we drove further south to Cape Hatteras:
For the next two nights we camped at the National Park Service campground at Frisco, south of Cape Hatteras and situated in sand dunes near the beach.
Boardwalk from our campground to the beach
The great thing about the Outer Banks is that portions of the shore are open to off-road vehicles, so you can just drive up and find your own spot on the beach. As someone who spent my summers on the crowded beaches of SoCal, I find this to be pretty amazing.
You can also drink beer on the beaches of the Outer Banks. Again, I am amazed by this.
We drove even further south to the end of Hatteras Island and took the 40 minute ferry to Ocracoke Island.
Ponies on Ocracoke Island.
More deserted beaches.
At the southern end of Ocracoke Island is Ocracoke Village, population 688, with no McDonald’s or Starbucks in sight.
Ocracoke lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in North Carolina.
These dogs have a pretty good life.
We rented a kayak that afternoon.
Local wildlife
Lots of pirate history in the Outer Banks
Boat on a boat!
Back to Hatteras.
My friends from California will probably think I am crazy for saying this, but I think I prefer the Outer Banks over the beaches of Southern California.
Related posts:
- POTD: I’m on a boat, on a boat in the OBX Yeah, stupid joke. Just thought it was kind of amusing to see a boat being transported by boat. This is the Ocracoke-Hatteras ferry down in the Outer Banks, which we took during our September 2010 trip to the Outer Banks....
- POTD: Ferry to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks During last September’s trip to the Outer Banks we traveled to Ocracoke Island, a remote island that can only be reached by ferry. We didn’t originally plan on going to Ocracoke, but rather made a last-minute decision that morning, when we arrived at the end of Hatteras Island. After a...
- OBX: Cape Hatteras National Seashore On Monday morning I drove down to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, about 60 miles south of our hotel in Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The surf in KDH had been rather disappointing (completely flat on Saturday, and blown out and choppy on Sunday) so I was hoping...
From Traci:
We are so lucky to have had such wonderful visitors to our Outer Banks of North Carolina. Thank you for this post & sharing all your great pictures. OBX.com would love to have you join our flickr group and share your pics with our members there.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/obxcom/
Again, we are so glad you had a wonderful time & hope to see you again soon