Kathryn W.

Wilmington, NC

Joined August 2018

I am a Co-Director and Facilitator for Nature Connect NC, an outdoor education company based in Wilmington, NC.

Short walk through Maritime forest to beautiful beach

There are only 6 tent sites at this RV friendly park. We stayed in site 4 and had a cut through to the beach. Site 2 also could access the shortcut, but other sites had a slightly farther walk. Going before the bugs come out is a must. Potable water on site and a short walk to bath houses. Beach is absolutely breathtaking and not crowded.

We also went on a night hike to the beach and saw so many stars!

No long hiking trails to speak of, but a few short walks through forest and an interpretive trail are available.

Tent sites are close together. There is little visual or auditory privacy.

Raccoons are abundant and the park has provided lockers for all food. We didn’t have any problems, but neighbors who didn’t store food properly did.

Camp site is situated on a pad that I assume is set up that way for flooding, but it made the campsite feel cramped, even though there were 2-4 feet of cleared space around the raised pad before the tree line.

Low intensity Lake Camping

This is a great spot for campers who would like to car camp and have a swimming feature. The lake is super shallow for at least a hundred yards in all directions from the dock. Where shoes when walking on the dock, lots of nail heads and splinters.

The swimming dock is a short walk from campsite 1, but quite a hike from the other primitive group sites. There are some hiking trails that meander through the sandy pine forest. They range from a .75 mile self-guided nature trail to a 4 mile hike along the lake,

The campsite had picnic tables, fire pit, food prep counter and was not near any other campsites. The mosquitos (expectedly) were pretty voracious despite liberal application of repellent.

The pit toilet had a healthy population of spiders, but the campsite was an easy walk to flush toilets and water fountains.

It would be a nice, private place to camp in colder months, but not much to do. The sunset on the lake was absolutely gorgeous and we had it to ourselves on the first night. This is also a popular destination for locals, so there were quite a few people on the dock on Saturday.

Beautiful vistas, group sites close together

View was gorgeous and hikes were beautiful in hard wood forest. Park was crowded, lots of cigarette butts and noisy camp neighbors. Toilets in good repair and minor flooding during rain.

Beautiful coastal forest on the banks of the Cape Fear River

The group campground is isolated from the rest of the camping areas and is quiet at night. There are a lot of park visitors who walk through the area, but the trail through goes around he main campsites. The pit toilets are in need of some attention, but have always been well stocked. It’s about 400 yards to hike in, so we used a wagon to bring in gear. No water on site, but a really nice fire pit with grill top and 2 picnic tables. Shady tent sites available, but really hot and buggy in summer. Group camp site is about .5 mile hike from the river which is great for wading, but swimming is not allowed.

Many species of carnivorous plants grow here and abundant wildlife.

in the summer months there is a place to rent kayaks and paddle boards at the marina.