Off to Ocracoke

[baraff]

Planning a trip to Jekyll Island, Ga, Charleston, SC and Ocracoke Island, NC. At Ocracoke we'll be staying at the NPS campground, our first real attempt at boondocking, off the grid. Anybody have any tips or thoughts about staying on Ocracoke? We managed to get ferry reservations even though the ferries are pretty booked due to parts of OBX being cut off from the mainland by Hurricane Irene.

[bsvirginian]

You are a lucky one. I just talked to a friend in Frisco yesterday and the wait time for residents going the other way can be as long as 5 hours. She did mention that Hatteras is reachable via Ocracoke though. I imagine that the beach is still good and the water warm enough to swim in. There are quite a few restaurants there and a pony corral. You might try to get over to Hatteras just to see the devastation. I personally don't care for the National Seashore CG on Ocracoke as it is just a flat field and the bugs might be very bad. My favorite is in Frisco of which at least has campsites on the dunes and a few have a view of the ocean. It also has showers (cold water) and bathhouses.
Have a good trip.

[baraff]

Thanks for the reply. Reading the local OBX news, it appears that residents and local business owners are getting priority on the ferries and if that's the case I can understand it. They've been through a lot and its not an easy place to get to even when things are normal. We have a Plan B just in case. Hopefully though Route 12 will be open by the time we get there and things will ease up on the ferries.