The last trip I posted about included a recitation of the many delights of the Blue Ridge Parkway; less than a month after we returned home the Parkway was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene. The storm inflicted terrible damage on many communities in Western North Carolina, and the damage to infrastructure was widespread. Sadly, our favorite portion of the Parkway — the incredibly scenic stretch from Asheville to Blowing Rock, which is full of outstanding hiking, parks, and other destinations — suffered catastrophic damage and will be mostly closed for the foreseeable future.

I don’t think our visit had anything to do with bringing down the wrath of the gods, but I suppose one can never know. Now that hurricane season is finally behind us, I feel I can safely reveal that we took another trip this fall to a notoriously storm-prone area. In October we visited North Carolina’s Outer Banks (the “Graveyard of the Atlantic“), taking in Roanoke Island, the Nag’s Head area, and part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Great Beaches

Our home base for exploring the area was a small but well-designed condo in an older complex directly on the ocean in Kill Devil Hills, the community nestled between the towns of Nag’s Head and Kitty Hawk. We love being able to walk to destinations from our lodging, and the location could not have been better for our purposes. Despite chilly, windy conditions and very heavy surf, we spent time on the beach every day.

 

We also headed about 20 miles south into the Cape Hatteras National Seashore where we checked out the exhibits at the historic Bodie Island Lighthouse as well as Coquina Beach across the street. Driving a few more minutes south brought us to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, where a terrific little visitor center staffed by volunteers provides a wealth of information about all the wildlife (mostly avian and marine life) that frequent the area.

All the beaches and trails we visited were lightly used, to say the least, but with the large number of rental properties in the various beach towns it’s easy to imagine the beaches in the populated areas filling up quickly in the summer months. Luckily the national seashore offers mile after mile of undeveloped beaches where it would be easy to spread out; just look out for the debris from the vacation homes that are falling prey to sea level rise and erosion a few miles south in Rodanthe.

 

 

One place we did not visit was Jockey’s Ridge State Park, which is notable for having some of the highest sand dunes on the east coast. The Tracks in the Sand trail at this park is a 1.2 mile slog up and down soft dunes, and since we are not fans of sand-related attractions we gave this a hard pass. I did, however, greatly enjoy reading reviews of this destination. This is a typical 5-star review:

Amazing. Didn’t know what to expect. All I can say is, it’s a must see! Just a heads up, you will be walking in soft sand and up and down hills. I didn’t walk all of it, as I have a bum knee, but was able to see and walk some.

To me, this 1-star review communicates exactly the same information about the trail:

If I were going to punish someone in my life, I would take them to this park and leave them there. I thought perhaps I had died and gone to hell. Once you make it up the first hill of sand, what you’ll encounter is even more sand. So, if you’re into deserts and becoming so dehydrated within 10 minutes even though you’ve brought water with you, you should drop everything and head there now. It’s the largest sand dune on the east coast, so, I guess I can say I’ve seen that and never want to see another one again. Many people like this and it makes me wonder what their idea of a vacation is. It’s not mine. Consider yourself warned.

Thank you, Jim from Alameda, for your anti-sand solidarity and for making me laugh for months.

Great Eats

While in the Outer Banks we wanted to take advantage of our proximity to the ocean by enjoying plenty of good seafood, and the fine folks who contribute reviews to Yelp and TripAdvisor did not lead us astray. Our favorite restaurant was the Kill Devil Grill, which was conveniently located a short walk from our rental. We loved the high quality of the ingredients and preparation, the mouth-watering list of daily specials, and the fun location in a classic diner building that somehow made sense with a railroad car attached to one side as a bar area (the “bar car”).

 

 

Our other top spot was Food Dudes Kitchen, which offers a small but creative menu of sandwiches and tacos in a tiny strip mall location. I would describe both of these restaurants as “hidden gems” but the fact that we visited in the off season, and at off hours, and still had substantial wait times at both places makes me think they are not so hidden. And of course no visit would be complete for us without swinging by a local brewery, and we enjoyed a flight at the Swells’a Brewing taproom located across the street from our rental.

 

 

Moderately Good History

On our way out to the barrier island we stopped on Roanoke Island in the Albemarle / Roanoke / Croatan Sound in order to visit the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This is the site of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the first (1587) English effort at establishing a colony in the New World. We visited because the National Park Service always does an excellent job of interpreting historic sites, but this is definitely one of the places where the NPS has very little to work with. The colony disappeared without a trace before 1590, and archaeological excavation has revealed little more than some buried tools and a pint-sized earth mound/fortification. The most interesting information in the visitor center deals with the aspirations of Elizabethan England and colony promoter Sir Walter Raleigh. The historic site is mostly notable for being home to a large amphitheater where the play The Lost Colony has been performed since 1937, making it the longest-running outdoor drama in America. This show is described as a combination of music, dialogue, and dance, which the author called “symphonic drama.” From the overwrought style to the problematic 1930s characterizations of Native Americans to the fact that Virginia Dare (the first English child born in America) is considered a major figure for white supremacists, this spectacle sounds simply dreadful. We were not disappointed to learn that the play only runs during the summer months.

 

 

We were much more impressed by the experience at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Once again the NPS had little to work with — there are basically no artifacts or original resources other than the actual grounds on which powered flight first took place in 1903, together with a very large and impressive historical monument perched on a hill above the flight area. But despite these limitations the visitor center has a lot to offer to history / science / aviation enthusiasts of all ages. The site does a great job of describing the various physical challenges of achieving flight (lift, power, steering) in simple, easy-to-understand terms, accompanied by hands-on activities for kids. It also communicates the personalities of the Wright brothers as inveterate tinkerers who kept working at the problem for years despite repeated failures. The selection of the site at Kitty Hawk is also explained nicely. A distressingly large number of early aviation pioneers died in their attempts at flight, and Kitty Hawk was relatively safe because steady, strong winds at the surface meant the brothers could glide just a few feet off the ground and crash land into soft sand. (Sand that no sane person would hike across for fun, but I digress.)

The visitor center includes a full-size reproduction of the Wright flyer (the original is at the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC) and scale models of a number of other early flying machines. One of my favorite items was a large reproduction of a photograph taken in 1928 at the dedication of the memorial. In just 25 years the field of aviation advanced dramatically, as evidenced by the fact that the dedication ceremony included Amelia Earhart, who was already famous for her flying accomplishments.

 

 

Coming Soon

My next post (yes, there will be another post) will be a year-end wrap up, but it will be very different from prior years since we sold the Airstream at the beginning of the year. Notably, the last post of the year will finally explain why so much of our travel this year has been focused on the mid-Atlantic region.

🤔

Stay tuned!