Hiking in Corolla

Sunday morning, we went for breakfast at First Light in TimBuckII. The skies were mostly overcast, but the rain had stopped. When we got back to the beach house, Sandy went out to the beach and I took a hike around Corolla. First, I headed up NC-12 to Currituck Banks Reserve, a North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve. Before I came, I applied a copious amount of bug spray, but surprisingly, the insects weren't bad at all here. Being a swampy maritime forest, I had thought the mosquitoes would be terrible, but I really didn't see any.

When I got to the reserve, I first headed out on the short boardwalk trail leading to a beautiful view of Currituck Sound.

Although the skies were cloudy, the views of the marshy areas up to the sound were quite beautiful.

I sat for a few minutes at the benches at the end of the boardwalk trail, enjoying the view, then started back and turned for the Currituck Banks Maritime Forest Trail. This trail passes through a beautiful maritime forest with a number of really cool live oaks growing along it.

I had to stop several times to check out these trees with their wildly-growing branches. They almost look like something out of a scary movie where the trees come alive. The trail ends again at a marshy area on the sound, about 3/4 of a mile from the start.

Turning around, I headed back through the maritime forest and boardwalk and headed back towards Corolla on NC-12. Almost back at the resort, I took a detour through Curritck Heritage Park for some pictures of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, the Whalehead Club, and some of the other interesting features of the park.

The Corolla Island Bridges, which were built after canals were made to create an "island" for the Whalehead Club were really pretty.

I got some more pictures and starting heading back to the beach house.

By the time I got back, the sun was finally starting to come out. Sandy and I had lunch with her parents at Cosmo's Pizzeria and then she and I headed to the beach to soak up some sun before we headed back. The sun had come out and it was turning into a beautiful day, but unfortunately, we needed to start heading back home. Of course, the weather gets nice when we have to leave! But it was an enjoyable weekend trip nonetheless. On the way out, the traffic was light going south on NC-12, but there were miles of gridlock going in the other direction. We will definitely need to keep this in mind next time we head to the northern Outer Banks and plan accordingly.