Bulls Island in the Cape Romaine National Wildlife Refuge

Today we took the Bulls Island Ferry, run by Coastal Expeditions, to Bulls Island for a day of hiking and sight seeing.  Reservations are required, and it is $55 per person.  This is the only way to get to this island, which is part of the Cape Romaine National Wildlife Refuge.  Personal watercraft are not allowed.  We had a big agenda for this island, since this will probably be our only chance to visit it.  It is a wonderful place to see nature at its finest in this vast salt marsh area.

From our campground, it was only about a 15 minute drive to the very long pier where we would catch the ferry.  

This is the boat that we would be taking out.

Jacque was our incredibly knowledgeable guide.  There wasn’t a question that she couldn’t answer.

And Albo was our captain.  He was absolutely hilarious, with the most dry sense of humor.

We saw so much wildlife, even before setting foot on the island, including dolphins.

This is a map of the island.  We chose to go to the observation tower first, then cut through the jungle to the boneyard, and then walk down the beach to the meeting spot.

Steve taking a good look (and a picture) at the island map before heading out.

The oak trees on the island are huge and beautiful!

Our walk to the observation tower was beautiful!  And our hope at the observation tower is to see an alligator in the wild.

When we reached the salt marshes, we knew we were getting close to the observation tower.  

Our first glimpses from the tower.  It was really beautiful and really still out here.  Only the sounds of nature.

And then, there it was, the alligator we had been hoping to see.  It was so exciting!  It was about 8 or 9 feet long, and so graceful I the water.

After about 20 minutes at the observation deck, we head back to the trail to make our way over to the boneyard.  Instead of silence this time, there were alligators bellowing on both sides of our trail.  We couldn’t see them, but we could certainly hear them.  It was a bit Erie.  We backtracked to a trail called alligator alley and then continued to the beach.  Once again the views were amazing. 

An alligator slide, right across our trail.

We walked for about an hour to get from the observation tower to the boneyard.  The boneyard is a tree graveyard that is left behind as the island moves.  All of these salt marsh islands are constantly moving, and as the ocean slowly takes over, the trees eventually die and are left behind on the beach.  It is quite a sight to see.  At high tide, these trees are completely under water and have been the demise of many boats throughout history.

On our way back to the dock to catch the ferry, we came across this baby alligator warming itself in the afternoon sun.

After our ferry ride back, we stopped at the only restaurant for miles and had some local seafood.  This time we treated ourselves to the fried fare, which we don’t usually do.  It wasn’t as good as the fresh seafood we have been eating, but still a treat.

This would be our final treat for this trip.  We will be heading home tomorrow.  What a fun experience this trip has been.  This was our first ever chance to see the east coast salt marshes up close and personal, and what a treat it was!

Buck Hall Recreation Area Camping

Living in the western US our whole lives, we are very spoiled, and are not used to making reservations for camping. In the west, there is BLM land everywhere, which means free, always available camping.  Here on the east coast it is quite different.  You need to at least have an idea of what you want to do each night.  Our plan for last night was to stay in the Buck Hall Recreation Area campground.  They have about 5 tent sites, and probably 30 RV sites, and they also have overflow dry camping available.  So we didn’t make a reservation, we just showed up, and if all the spots were full, we figured we would just use the overflow area.  Well, think again.  Since it is “shrimping” season, the campground was completely full, and during “shrimping” season, they don’t allow overflow parking.  They did still have two tent sites available, and since we are in a van, and don’t require any hookups, we are able to use a tent site.  By the time we drove the loop and got back to the pay station, another van had already pulled in that wanted a tent site too, so our timing was impeccable.  We had a spot for the night, but just barely.  

Buck Hall Recreation Area is a very nice campground with restrooms, showers, a dump station and a boat ramp, right onto the inter coastal water way, which our site is right on as well. RV sites with electric and water are $28 per night, and the tent sites are $20 per night.

The RV sites are a nice level, paved pad in the grass, but since we are using a tent site, we have a designated parking spot with a picnic table and fire pit with a grill, and a huge grass area that backs up to the inter coastal water way.  Super cool.  We learned some history about the inter coastal waterway while we were here.  People had wanted all of the east coast waterways connected for years, but it had just never happened.  Then during World War II, it became a necessity to have an inland waterway for private and cargo ships to pass through without the risk of being bombed by the German U boats.  So the inter coastal waterway was dug to connect all of the natural waterways.  It was dug large enough for cargo vessels, but too shallow for the U boats to enter.  So smart.

There are lots of huge live oak trees, with beautiful Spanish moss hanging down.

Our lack of planning could have been bad, but luckily it all worked out OK.  We really like this camp ground, and even really like the tent site.  This will be our last camping spot of this trip before we head home.  It has been really nice.

Oak Island Lighthouse and Pier

Before leaving Oak Island, NC, we wanted to look around a little bit.  Our first stop was the lighthouse. It is the newest lighthouse in North Carolina, and was built to replace the steel lighthouse on Bald Island.  It doesn’t have a traditional spiral stair case. Instead, it has a series of ships ladders (131 steps) to get to the top.  It is 153 feet tall, and can be seen for 16 nautical miles. 

We also had a chance to visit the Oak Island Pier, a very active fishing pier, right in the heart of town.

With beautiful views from the pier in our minds, it was time to head south again, to see what we might find next.