Fitnessroadie

By, Beth Foster

Sand Dunes, Jockey’s Ridge State Park, Nags Head, North Carolina

I always enjoy visiting Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head, North Carolina. If you love that salt life, you know that the city of Nags Head is located in the Outer Banks of North Carolina! What I love about this particular park is that you can have so much fun on the dunes and it seems to always be windy. So, you can more than likely fly a kite or do some hang gliding! This past time that we visited the park, we saw some people hang gliding and also a few folk flying kites. Please note that if you are hang gliding, you must have a permit.

I have included pictures from the winter and spring.

Charlie on the dunes in the spring

Jockey’s Ridge State Park is celebrating its 5oth year anniversary, yay! With that milestone accomplishment, let me tell you a little bit more about the park. It is the tallest living sand dune system on the Atlantic coast, and it also is part of the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail. The main activities of the park is hang gliding, hiking, fun picnicking and sandboarding. I once sand boarded on the dunes and it didn’t work out too well because I didn’t have the proper sand board. I was using a small plastic snow sleigh. So, please rent a sandboard so that you may have a great experience. There is also the option of paddling, swimming, kiteboarding and windsurfing at the Soundside.

There is not a fee to enter the park, and it is dog friendly. Plenty of parking and open every day except Christmas. It does not matter when you go, you will always find a parking space. We recently went in the month of May; the sand was very hot! We thought it was a good idea to take our shoes off and pretend to be Micheal Johnson (Olympic gold medalist sprinter) when he was preparing for the summer Olympics in the Sahara Desert lol. He definitely had shoes on, and it was for a good reason, if he hadn’t had shoes on, he too would have burned his feet! We also needed his famous gold shoes!

By the way, it is a very cute overlook in case you are unable to walk up to the dunes, which is also handicap accessible. Also, there is a station near the restroom for washing off your body and feet from all the sand. I like the fact that there is also a dog water bowl there just in case your pup needs some water.

This is near the entrance of the park, I think the tree formations are so cool! I feel as if I am in a secret garden.

Stay Fit & God Bless!