With the village of Ocracoke in the distance, Jerry and Lisa Woodard from Greenville, Nort
Can't get there from here
Getting your truck to the Core Banks isn't easy or cheap, but for the adventurous it's the crown jewel of the Outer Banks. The Core Banks are part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, which extends south from Ocracoke Island. The north and south Core Banks total 55 miles, but are split by New Drum Inlet. Our destination was the South Core Banks, a 25-mile-long island, which has remained basically unchanged for the past 100 years.To get there, we boarded another state-run ferry at Ocracoke for the 212-hour crossing of the Pamlico Sound to Cedar Island, North Carolina. This ferry requires advance reservations, but it costs only $10 each way. At the Cedar Island landing, we disembarked and followed Highway 70 for about 15 miles to the town of Davis, where we had reservations at the Alger G. Willis Fishing Camps to transport our truck to the island on its private car ferry. Our captain was Ronnie Willis, whose grandfather started the ferry service in about 1950 with a one-car ferry. Today, the company is a concessionaire to the Park Service and is the only firm permitted to commercially haul vehicles to the South Core Banks. The service costs around $100 to haul a standard-size 4x4 with two passengers to the island and back. For those wishing to escape to a 4x4 paradise, it's a smokin' deal. It can be the perfect isolated vacation spot as well, because inexpensive rustic cabins equipped with propane stoves and hot-water showers are available on the island.
To get there, we boarded another state-run ferry at Ocracoke for the 21/2-hour crossing of the Pamlico Sound to Cedar Island, North Carolina. This ferry requires advance reservations, but it costs only $10 each way. At the Cedar Island landing, we disembarked and followed Highway 70 for about 15 miles to the town of Davis, where we had reservations at the Alger G. Willis Fishing Camps to transport our truck to the island on its private car ferry. Our captain was Ronnie Willis, whose grandfather started the ferry service in about 1950 with a one-car ferry. Today, the company is a concessionaire to the Park Service and is the only firm permitted to commercially haul vehicles to the South Core Banks. The service costs around $100 to haul a standard-size 4x4 with two passengers to the island and back. For those wishing to escape to a 4x4 paradise, it's a smokin' deal. It can be the perfect isolated vacation spot as well, because inexpensive rustic cabins equipped with propane stoves and hot-water showers are available on the island.
The week before our arrival on the Outer Banks a strong spring nor'easter dislodged this o
Our ferry docked at the Great Island Cabin Area, and we pointed our Tahoe south on the deep-sand main road, which runs down the middle of the island. We followed this for 12 miles, past the Cape Lookout Lighthouse to where it ends at the island's point, seeing absolutely no one during the stunning drive.At the southernmost tip of the island, Cape Point, we followed the beach west as our tires crunched over millions of shells while we passed old World War II cement gun mounts, which were being taken over by the sea. We ran out of land at Power Squadron Spit, and from there we could see the last official island of the Outer Banks, Shackelford Banks--a proposed wilderness zone.
We reversed direction and began the 25-mile drive along the beach to the northernmost tip of the South Core Banks at New Drum Inlet.
After following the water line of the isolated beach for more than an hour, we reached the New Drum Inlet, which is at the northern tip of the South Core Banks. With the day drawing to a close, it was clear that complete exploration of the South Core Banks would take a lot longer than 10 hours, so we pledged to return and continue our four-wheeling journey on another trip--one we vowed would happen soon. Knowing that we had three ferries and a number of islands to traverse in order to return us to our point of origin near Corolla, North Carolina, we turned our truck southward and began the 8-mile trek toward the ferry dock where we had reservations on the last scheduled boat of the day. We had successfully navigated the entire length of the Outer Banks.
Is Carova Beach 4x4 Heaven?
Around 1963, developers cut a deal to build Carova Beach on a deserted section of the Outer Banks between Corolla, North Carolina, and the Virginia state line. The original plan called for the Ocean Pearl Highway to be built to allow access to the homes from Virginia Beach, Virginia, to the north, and Highway 168 to the south. The homes were built, but the toll road was never started. This created a town that was accessible only by four-wheel drive, and it remains that way today.
Carova Beach, North Carolina, has continued to grow at a modest rate over the years, and now includes over 250 full-time residents who live miles from the nearest paved road in a four-wheel-drive-only town that defies logic. Street signs, a fire department (filled with cool 4WD stuff), a post office, and elevated homes rooted in deep sand are just a few feet from the Atlantic Ocean.
Of course, things are not always peachy when you live on a sand pile a few feet from the ocean. Hurricanes and high lunar tides tend to wipe out and reform the terrain and make travel difficult and often impossible. Mother Nature is always knocking at your door. We heard stories of Carova Beach residents having to 'wheel through bumper-deep seawater during high lunar tides. Because the beach is the only way to access the town, when it's under water you either wait it out or give it a shot. Deputy McIntosh told us that there is nothing that looks more insane than witnessing a Carova Beach resident's sea-foam-covered 4x4 emerging from the flooded beach.