Harkers Island in Instagram

Harkers Island, Instagram, originally uploaded by Scarlett Design.

  This weekend I took a short hike, and decided I would just use my phone for photos instead of carrying my camera. I knew the light wouldn't be good mid day and Jon is out of town, so its easier for me to send him photos from my phone than to download them onto my computer first.

  Harkers Island is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, but unlike the rest of the barrier islands, this one is accessible without a boat ride. This part of the national seashore is pretty small, the entire circuit hike I did of the area was only 2 miles. But its pretty, and is just the sort of trail I like, going through several different ecosystems: marsh, coastal forest, and past a small pond. This is exactly the type of walk Jon and I like for Sunday afternoons with a picnic, and we'll definitely be back here with the dogs once the weather gets cooler.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

This last weekend, Jon, the dogs, and I took the ferry out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. It was beautiful. We had planned on going to the beach, but instead spent most of the day exploring and driving the mostly deserted beach.

  Unlike Ocracoke Island, the South Core Banks has no permanent residents, although there are several cabins located near the vehicle ferry landing. There is also a Lighthouse, and a small, uninhibited fishing village. But mostly it is just a 20 mile long stretch of sand and dunes.

Due to high winds, the ocean side of the island was cooler than we had expected, but the sky was a beautiful, bright blue.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

An abandoned home in the old fishing village.

If you go, seriously consider brining a 4WD vehicle. The vehicle ferry costs more than the passenger ferry, but the island is too big to explore on foot in just one day.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

  This weekend I finally got a day off! Its the first time, since we moved a month ago, that I wasn't working on something in the house, either unpacking, rearranging, or cleaning. I didn't even do dishes. It was great!

  We went out on a friends boat, to the Cape Lookout National Seashore, and went to the beach. It was an amazing, relaxing day. The water was so warm we just sat in it for hours swimming and drinking beer. In the picture it looks like the beach was pretty crowded, but the nearest boat was actually at least 100 feet away.

First Camping Trip of 2013, Ocracoke Island

  Easter weekend was our first camping trip of the 2013, to Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks. We were here for Easter weekend last year too, but this year was definitely colder, still comfortable for sleeping outside though, and the sun was warm, so great for sitting out on the beach, just not for swimming.

Flip flops! And now that it is started to warm up, finally, I've worn them several times since. I made the skirt myself, using a pattern from the Alabama Studio Style Book. I'll hopefully get around to posting full length photos of it sometime soon, because I love how it came out.

Alone on the beach. We got the off road driving pass so we were able to drive out to a nice secluded spot on the beach. We saw maybe 3 other trucks all day. Even last year on July 4 weekend, other vehicles were at least 50 feet away even during the most crowded part of the day.

I love collecting shells, and I found a bunch of little pink ones to bring home with me this time.

This is the third time we've been to Ocracoke, and every time I wish I had a few more days. I haven't even gotten around to exploring much of the little village yet. Hopefully, I'll be back soon.

SNOW!!!

  We do occasionally get snow here in Virginia Beach, only once or twice a year, and usually only a few inches (in six years the most snow I've seen on the ground here was 6", and it shut down the city for a week). A couple weekends ago we got our first, and possibly only snowfall this winter. So I grabbed my camera and my dogs and headed down to MacKay Island NWR. The marsh looked beautiful with a dusting of snow.

  A great blue heron, normally they are quite skittish, but on the drive home I realized that for some reason they weren't as scared of the car as they were of me on foot. This one let observe him from only about 25 feet way and across a frozen creek, even seeming to parade around and pose for pictures.

Jockey's Ridge State Park

  As I mentioned in my last post, a few weeks ago I went down to the Outer Banks for a day to do some easy hiking at Jockey Ridge State Park. I've wanted to visit this park for a few years and finally made time, its only about 2 hours south of Virginia Beach.

  Jockey Ridge is a very well maintained park. There are nice picnic areas near the parking lot, an observation deck to watch hang gliders, and a few hiking trails, both pretty easy. Still, I managed to get lost, its difficult to follow a trail in the sand, not like in the forest where trails are easily visible. Fortunately, there aren't many hang gliders in January, so getting off the trail didn't put me in the landing zone, and I pretty much had the park to myself, the only person I talked to was a park Ranger who wanted to meet Chewie and Panzer. The trail was nice and easy, less than 3 miles roundtrip, and not much elevation, the tallest sand dunes on the east coast are only 100 feet high.

  One thing I really enjoyed about this park was the many different environments in a small space. There are the barren dunes, a lowland coastal forest, and some beach and marshy areas.

Although leashed dogs are allowed, martinis, apparently, are not.

A word of caution about hiking in the Outer Banks, go in the winter, or wear a lot of bug spray! 

52 Photos Project: Wide Open Spaces

This weeks "52 Photos Project theme is "Wide Open Spaces."

Last week I took a "field trip" to Jockey Ridge State Park in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Its well known for having some large sand dunes, as well as being close to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers made their first flight.

Ocracoke Tidepools

Ive always loved tide pools, perhaps because I can see what is normally hidden. Its fun to wade in the shallow water and watch the animals left behind by the tide. These ones on the beach at Ocracoke formed interesting little streams running towards the ocean.

Sunset from our campsite.

Ocracoke Island, Again

We went back to Ocracoke Island for a few days at the beginning of July. We only stayed 3 days, and then left early on account of some rain and buggy national park campground. Still got some beautiful, relaxing days on a beautiful beach though. I enjoyed watching these little sandpipers look for food in the sand, but they kept running away when I tried to take their picture.

The best part about the beaches in the Outer Banks is that you can drive on them. Even when it gets crowded, the nearest cars were about 100' away, and we didn't have to carry everything.

Ocracoke Island

Its taken me almost a month to finally finish editing my photos from Ocracoke. The beach is beautiful. Its a typical barrier island beach, wide and sandy, with pretty dunes and some marshes on the landward side.

We got a permit to drive on the beach. Its alot of fun. Plus, Im not going to lie, its nice to drive to a nice secluded spot and not have to carry all the beach crap (cooler, chairs, umbrella, ect.) for miles.

Sandpipers near the waters edge.

Ocracoke Island Ferry

Last week we went to Ocracoke Island, in the Outer Banks, for the first time. Its a beautiful island, mostly part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, with a cute little town, and can only be reached by boat or plane. Here are some photos from the ferry ride.

My boyfriend's safari truck on the ferry.

We passed many little islands and sandbars.