We had originally planned to be up and out early this morning, but this place has a lot going for it so we decided to stick around another day and explore around the area. Besides, it can’t hurt to give the flooding in the Carolinas another day to dry out.
The morning began with a walk over to the picnic area to have a look at the butterfly garden. It is late in the season and I’m afraid most of the butterflies have moved on. We did see a few down at the beach later on though. We continued down to the boat launch and admired the view and studied up on the little historical markers that they have scattered about the park. This dock is where the ferries used to disembark before the bridge/tunnel was completed in 1964. After that, the ferries quickly faded from the scene.
In 1948, nine concrete ships from the Second World War were sunk across Kiptopeke beach to act as a breakwater for the pier. Each ship is 336 feet long. They now act as an artificial reef and nesting area for pelicans, seagulls and ospreys.
At the end of the grassy park area lies the rickety wooden steps to the northern beach where dogs are allowed. The water was calm and both dogs got their feet wet. Koda was starting to tire so we headed back to camp and had a bit of breakfast and sat on the grass in the sun reading the paper and watching weekend campers arriving and setting up their spots.
Unlike other campgrounds we’ve stayed at that try to give you the bums rush with check out times like 11:00 o’clock, Kiptopeke gives you a more civilized hour of 3:00 to leisurely get your act together and mosey along. Or in our case, to get to the office and extend our stay for another night. We rode our bikes up to the office hauling along our bag of trash to toss in the dumpsters by the camp entrance.
After taking care of business, we rode our bikes down to the camp store and then back to the pier to have another look around to make sure we weren’t missing anything cool.
Rested in the RV until early evening then took a hike past the yurts to the tent camping area. Wandered around in the trees then came out the other side and looped back around to our camp. Made some veggie burritos and watched the flock of neighbor kids run wild throughout the camp. Things quieted down as night set in and we are already snug in our bed.
Heart on the Wing 