Pine Island

We headed out to the Outer Banks for the Independence Day weekend.  We left quite early and made it to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge just after sunrise.  We took a quick detour on the Wildlife Drive and within 2 miles, came to two black bears in a tree right along the side of the road.

A few other cars had stopped and everyone was enjoying watching and taking photos of the bear.  The lower male didn't seem to be interested and just wanted to take a nap.  The smaller bear on the upper branches was intently watching all the people.

We got some pictures and headed on.  Once we got to Currituck Banks, Sandy wanted to go to the pool and I wanted to get in a hike, so she dropped me off at Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary just past Duck.  A 2.5-mile nature trail led through the sanctuary.

I saw a common wood-nymph along the trail.

In about 0.7 miles, a short spur led out to an overlook on Currituck Sound.

A little further on the trail, I spotted some Maryland meadowbeauty flowering.

Near the southern end at the Dare County line, there was another overlook of the sound.

The trail ended on NC-12 near Sanderling resort and I turned around here.  A deer and her cute little fawn crossed the trail in front of me.

It was pretty hot in the open areas, but not too bad in the shade.

The live oak were really beautiful in the maritime forest, their gnarled limbs a testament to the harsh conditions on the barrier island.

Near the end, I spotted some coral honeysuckle flowering.

When I finished the trail, I started hiking north along NC-12 and eventually connected to Corolla Greenway.

There was a little shade along the trail, but not much and it was pretty hot hiking on the greenway.  I followed it all the way to Corolla Light and met up with Sandy and her family at the beach house.

I was pretty hungry by this point so Sandy and I went to Low Tide Bar & Grill to get lunch and beer from Northern Outer Banks Brewing.  After lunch, we headed to Currituck Banks Reserve for a short hike in the shade.  We started out on the boardwalk trail.

At the turn, we hiked down the Maritime Forest Trail through a beautiful woods of live oaks.

It looks like they made the trail have a short loop at the end and blocked off the path to the sound.  After hiking through the forest, we finished up the boardwalk out to the Sound Overlook.

The views were really pretty in the evening light.

We finished up our hike and headed back to the beach house.  We had pizza for dinner and socialized for a bit before going to bed.