Jockey's Ridge State Park: Tracks in the Sand Trail (Blog Hike #270)

Trail: Tracks in the Sand Trail

Hike Location: Jockey's Ridge State Park

Geographic Location: Nags Head, NC (35.96432, -75.63284)

Length: 1.4 miles

Difficulty: 4/10 (Moderate)

Dates Hiked: May 2009, March 2016

Overview: An amazing hike featuring the Outer Banks in their natural state.

Park Information: https://www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/jockeys-ridge-state-park
Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=941308
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: In Nags Head, take US 158 (Croatan Highway) to milepost 12 and the signed park entrance road; there is a traffic light at this intersection.  Follow the park road to its end and park in the large (and only) parking lot in front of the Visitor Center.

The hike: Most people who come from Ohio to the Outer Banks come to have a vacation, but just after the dawn of the 20^th Century two bicycle shop owners from Dayton, Ohio came for a completely different reason: to attempt the impossible.  The two bicycle shop owners were Orville and Wilbur Wright, and the impossible was to build a machine that could fly.  With high dunes, soft sand (for landing), and high wind speeds, Kitty Hawk made the perfect destination for their endeavors.  They traveled down here every winter for several years with no success, but finally on December 17, 1903, their machine lifted off the ground and into the history books.

            The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk does a fabulous job of displaying the genius of the Wright brothers.  Rangers describe the design process, and various exhibits contain re-creations of the machines they built along with the tools they used to build them.  Stones placed on the ground mark where the machine lifted off and subsequently touched down.

            While the memorial succeeds at preserving history, it fails at preserving the grounds itself.  Where the Wright brothers would have seen mountains of bare sand visitors today will see grass, trees, and concrete.  Thus, to see the Outer Banks the way the Wright brothers did, you will have to go somewhere else.  Fortunately, that somewhere else is just a few miles down US 158 at Jockey's Ridge State Park, a small island of natural dunes in a sea of development.

            Perhaps the most popular activity at the park is hang gliding; visitors take advantage of the same winds that lured the Wrights.  For those of us wishing to keep our feet on the grounds, two trails allow hikers to explore the park’s dunes.  The 1 mile Soundside Nature Trail provides a nice walk along Roanoke Sound, but it does not leave from the main parking lot.  The Tracks in the Sand Trail described here leads through the heart of the dunes and gives the best feel for the Outer Banks in their natural state.

Trailhead near Visitor Center

            From the edge of the parking area, the trail starts at a sheltered bench located to the right (west) of the Visitor Center.  The first few yards of trail pass through a shrubby area, but soon you will emerge on the open sand.  Some numbered wooden posts indicate the presence of an interpretive brochure, but none were available on my visit.  At the very least the posts serve to keep you on the trail, as the treadway would be indistinguishable from the rest of the sand otherwise.

            Just after passing post #2, you will top the next dune.  Climbing this dune gives you the old two steps forward then slide back one feeling.  Fortunately, such areas are rare on this trail.  In fact, most of the sand was even firm enough to hold my weight, no small feat for a person my size.  While the sand poses little difficulty to your legs and lungs, it still serves to radiate sunlight, making this a hot hike in the summer.  Be sure to wear sunblock to avoid getting a bad sunburn.

            The trail passes posts 3, 4, and 5 in quick succession.  Following these posts will lead you into an area of dense but low vegetation at the base of a very steep dune.  Most of the dunes are void of vegetation because the sand does not retain enough moisture to support plant life.  However, in the lower areas such as this one, enough moisture is retained to allow some drought-hardy greenery such as yuccas to grow.

Climbing to post 4

            If you follow the posts out of this depression you will need to climb a nearly vertical hill of sand.  On the other hand, if you backtrack about 20 yards and look to your right, you will see a more gradual and firmer route to the next post.  The wind is constantly reshaping these dunes, so a route that may have worked well a few years ago may be nearly impassible now.  Thus, in this and a few other areas you may have to make your own trail rather than following the prescribed route.

            The top of the next dune is the highest point on the trail.  Take a minute to look around and take in the mountains of sand that surround you.  Wind erosion has carved some interesting formations in some of the dunes to your right.  Straight ahead, the sand leads downhill until it meets vast Roanoke Sound.  Standing at this point, your surroundings appear more like a scene from an African or Australian desert than the Outer Banks as we typically think of them.  As hard as it may be to believe, all of the Outer Banks used to look like this before their extensive development and erosion control began.

Wind-sculpted sand dunes

            Post #6 marks the beginning of the loop portion of this hike.  To follow the posts in order, you will need to angle right here and use the left row of posts as the return route.  The trail descends moderately, picking its way through the dunes and heading for the sound.  At 0.7 miles, you arrive at the shore of the sound.  The sound is large enough so that the vacation homes along the opposite shore appear as small colored dots on an otherwise green and blue canvas.

            The trail curves left and heads south with the sound lapping to your right and a wall of sand dunes to your left.  Very few areas along the sound are preserved in their natural state as this one is, so take some time to enjoy the scenery.  At post #10, the trail curves left and begins climbing away from the sound, exploiting a gap in the dunes.  The sand here is pretty firm, so this climb is not nearly as hard as it could be.

Shore of Roanoke Sound

            Post #14 is the last post, and soon thereafter you will close the loop.  From this point, you need to head back across the sand to the main parking area.  The highest dunes in the park are to your right as you return.  You can depart from the trail, but be careful where you wander: recall that hang-gliding is a popular activity in this park, and hikers always come up on the short end of hiker-glider collisions.  Watch the sky carefully but take in the scenery as you complete a hike you will remember for a long time.

Looking up at the tallest dunes