Want to explore the largest active sand dune system on the Atlantic coast? Visit Jockey’s Ridge State Park on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. At times, the dune can get as tall as 60 feet. Because the wind-blown ridges are continuously moving, they are called active or living dunes.
Sand is at the mercy of wind and water, which affect everything on the barrier islands. During the winter, winds blow from the northeast and during the summer, they come from the southwest. Constantly blowing back and forth prevents sand from blowing away entirely.
We hiked three trails during our June visit – the boardwalk trail, Tracks in the Sand, and Soundside Nature Trail.
The visitor center and museum has a ton of helpful information about the barrier islands, sand dunes, and local animals.
Tracks in the Sand/TRACK Trail
TRACK trails are designed for kids and families as part of the Kids in Parks program.
This 1.2-mile loop trail starts next to the visitor center, climbs the dunes, descends next to the Roanoke Sound, and back. If you’ve never hiked in sand before, be prepared for a hard slog up and down the dunes.
After walking a pine-lined path, we got our first view of Jockey’s Ridge. This large expanse of sand is awe-inspiring. Only a sliver of the sound is visible from here.
You can walk anywhere in the dunes, but the trail is marked with wooden posts and arrows. Keep these in your eyeline before moving on to follow the route.
Darker layers indicating areas where vegetation used to grow are called paleosol. Cross beds are slanted layers showing the different wind directions.
As we continued down to the water, we passed a broken fence and beach grass which were weirdly photogenic. White and red flowers (yucca and red sesbania/scarlet wisteria) were in bloom.
Appropriately we found some tracks in the sand by the water.
From here, we had a climb back in through the trees to the top of a ridge. This overlook gives 360-degree views of the dunes and sound. We took a couple moments to rest and watch people practice hang gliding.
Boardwalk
After exploring the visitor center, we walked the 384-foot wooden boardwalk. It is a universally accessible path that ends at an overlook for Jockey’s Ridge. This is perfect for people with mobility issues, small children, or those short on time.
From the boardwalk we spied cardinals, fish crows, Carolina wrens, brown thrashers, and a couple of squirrels. We also saw two blue jays hopping around trees near our car in the parking lot.
Soundside Nature Trail
As the name implies, this 0.6-mile loop is on the soundside of the island. To hike this trail, we had to leave the main state park area and head back to West Soundside Road for its parking lot. This small lot also acts as a beach access lot, so it was crowded when we visited.
From the trailhead sign, the loop moves counterclockwise, finishing along the sound. It features maritime shrub thickets of live oaks, persimmons, red cedar, wax myrtle, bayberry, sweet gum, red oaks, and pines.
This area has more vegetation than Tracks in the Sand.
The trail climbs shorter dunes, crosses wooden bridges, and pops in and out of wooded areas.
We caught the quick flash of a rabbit running across the path before it disappeared in the shrubs.
At the turning point there is a staircase up to the higher dune level. Then there are spur paths to the water for the rest of the trail.
A flash of yellow pulled our eyes to a common wood-nymph butterfly resting on tree bark.
The loop ends back at the parking lot a few feet from the trailhead.
In addition to the hiking trails, visitors can also swim, picnic, hang glide, sandboard, kiteboard, windsurf, and bird watch in the park. If you are travelling through the Outer Banks, add this to your itinerary to exercise and explore the landscape.