OBX trip report

[BMThiker]

Day 1: Left ATL and headed for G'Vegas. Arrived around lunchtime and wandered down Main St to check out the stores and the Falls park.

Really cool suspension bridge and nice shady paths along the river.

Marshall and Becca took us to Papas & Beers for dinner and put us up for the night. Good times.

The next morning we hit the road headed for Nags Head. Here's our overall route. More later on in the story about that extra loop on the far right of our route map.Google Maps

 

[BMThiker]

We stayed at the Nags Head Beach Inn (really a B&B) for the first couple nights and explored the area around Nags Head/Kill Devil Hills. The owners are really laid back and provided just about anything you could need...chairs, towels, bikes, umbrellas. And breakfast was amazing, not just an apple and a bagel. We had all kinds of pastries, quiches, juice, coffee, breakfast sandwiches made to order. Even chocolate cake was set out each night for a late night dessert. We wanted to book this vacation before Memorial day to save some $$$, so we got in this place just before rates went up.

Kitty trying on her new suit in our room.

Restaurants recommended in the area:
Tortuga's Lie
The Red Drum
Mama Kwan's
All had fresh shellfish and most had fish tacos. The Red Drum was the most expensive at about $17-22 per dinner. The other two places had plenty of under $15 options.

On the beach it was a bit windy in Nags Head. The water was too cold for us, but there were a few diehards out there in the water.

Boooo!

I really wasn't eager to drive on the beach anyway, but there were major beach access closures this far north.

 

[BMThiker]

One of the first sites we visited was the Wright Bros. Memorial. I love this history stuff and it always amazes me what people were capable of with so little technology that we take for granted like phones/roads/bridges/ferries. These guys somehow heard about the Kitty Hawk area all the way from Ohio and then schlepped all their gear out to the dunes to carry out there experiments...simply amazing.

I'll skip the history lesson, but if you haven't been there, you should definitely check it out.

While out exploring places around Manteo, we came across this rugged beast (only $6500)

Not bad...except that it probably gets 5mpg on a good day.

The next day we hiked the dunes at Jockey Ridge park which looks like a sand box the size of Rhode Island. Unfortunately they don't serve martini's out there.

This is where they teach folks how to hang glide. I think it was too windy the day we were there because we saw the students/instructor but nobody was moving gear to the top of the dune.

The trails wind down around to the sound and it gets marshy and the water is really shallow.

At one point we found a sandbar that went out into the sound a couple hundred feet.

 

[BMThiker]

After our hike we packed up and headed south for Buxton near the bottom of Cape Hatteras. There are a couple of lighthouses along this section and we always stop to explore them.

This is the one on Bodie Island and serves the ships in the Roanoke sound.

The Hatteras lighthouse was right around the corner from our new accommodations at Cape Woods Campground. It's the tallest on the east coast and they had to move it 1/2 mile inland because the shoreline is changing so rapidly.

The top of this one was so windy they almost kicked us out. It was sustaining 30mph and gusting up to 42mph. They had a ranger up top that was measure windspeed every 10 minutes or so.

goofing off...

Here's our camp. This campground had a moat all the way around it - I guess to keep the four legged critters at bay. We accidentally left our trash bag hanging from the electrical pole and it was never molested the 4 days it hung there. The moat is full of snapping turtles - we counted at least 6 that came over to the water's edge to check us out. I guess they are used to getting handouts too.

Recommended restaurants/food in the area:
Conner's Supermarket (surprisingly good market for fresh catches, veggies, beer...not your typical roadside market/convenience store)
Orange Blossom Bakery & Cafe (breakfast only, awesome donuts from scratch everyday)
The Sandbar & Grille (where we had the BEST fried oysters ever, we actually ate here twice)

They have a nice view of the sound at sunset too.

 

[BMThiker]

We went down to see the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village Honestly it was a bit disappointing, but thankfully free to the public. The old lens assembly from the Hatteras light house was there and it has a colorful history of being hidden from Union troops and then misplaced for 100 years. However the rest of the museum was simply a lot of text on banner boards and very few artifacts of interest. If you don't mind reading a lot of history, then you might like this place.

Neat architecture though.

The ferry to Ocracoke was not running due to the Super Moon and high winds wreaking havoc on the shoals. They had several boats run aground that morning, so we decided to just look around Hatteras and go back to Rodanthe and check out the historic Chicamacomico Life Saving Station.

Posing on some boulders near the ferry docks.

At the Life Saving Station in Chicamacomico.

Looking out at Oregon Inlet bridge.

Posing next to one big bluefin caught just SE of the inlet (805lbs.)

 

[BMThiker]

We made the Ocracoke ferry at 8am the next day, but were forewarned that the shoals were still a problem. They said that they expected the ferry to shut down again by noon time and then resume around 7pm. We took our chances...

Heavy Coast guard presence there...you just don't see this much USCG activity on the FL or GA coastlines. Saw several helicopters, one Osprey, and a handful of boats like this one.

Had to stop and take a picture of this grand daddy Jeep.

The oldest lighthouse on the east coast is at Ocracoke Inlet.

It had a friendly "guard" waiting for us on the boardwalk.

Getting off the island at around 1pm proved fruitless, so we spent the afternoon on the beach and it was awesome.

We also rented a pedal boat and drove it around the entire Ocracoke sound.

We came back to the ferry around 6:30 only to learn that the ferry route was shut down indefinitely.

We had left our tent, air mattress and a folding table back at the Buxton camp, and we only had planned to stay one more day before heading back to ATL on Wednesday. Now our itinerary got turned upside down and we wound up camping on Ocracoke with the spare tent I had packed and only one sleeping bag with no mattress pad. After the sun went down the greenheads (skeeters) attacked in full force no matter how much bug spray we covered ourselves with. We had eaten sandwiches at Howard's Pub earlier that day, but decided to go back and get dinner there too. Also, we wanted to be able to sit at the bar all night to avoid going back to camp where all we had was a tiny tent and no campfires allowed.

The next day we took the only option we had left, which was the ferry to Cedar Island. The ferry to Swan Quarter was booked and standby was too much of a gamble since we weren't the only ones who got stranded.

Then we drove all the way back up to Manteo, across the Virginia Dare Trail bridge and back down the strand to Buxton. 2.5 hours of ferry and 5 hours of driving, we decided to eat dinner at the Red Drum in Nags head before making the last jaunt to Buxton. We arrived at camp around 8pm, showered and cracked open the last of our beer before calling it a night.

At the crack of dawn on Thursday we broke camp and headed back to Atlanta. It was a memorable trip for sure and we loved the remoteness and isolation from the busy city life. However, next time I put my truck on a ferry, it will be fully packed with nothing left behind.

 

[jleeFJ62]

Very cool trip Rick!

 

[GarnerFJ40]

Rick,

It looks like you did more of our annual Spring Tide Ride then we did this year! Looks like you went after May 1, which they start imposing the town's beach driving restrictions. We're not even going to discuss the Cape Hatteras NPS problems! Looks like you didn't get up to the Duck and Corolla area, where it is free driving for miles...

It's definitely all about seeing the sights, eating some great seafood, and just relaxing!

Glad you had fun!

 

[alk747triodad]

Looks like you guys had a great trip!
Stranded on Ocracoke and not even a hurricane. Now that's unusual unless you miss the last ferry of the day.
We've almost done that! (twice)
After seeing your pics, I can't wait til June 18th when we go for a week at Hatteras Village.
I agree with you on the museum; cool architecture but not much inside.

 

[tromz]

Awesome Rick. Sad I had to miss you guys at Gsmtr. Thats the life I lived for almost 15 years. The road washes out , the ferrys get cancelled ,cell towers go down, the tide rolls into the yard, and brings the neighbors stuff with it.
Did you get to check out Little Kinnakeet? Or the breaches bouy demo @ Chicamacamico?