1. Pea Island Visitor Center
City: Pea Island, NC
Category: Getting Here, Getting Around
Telephone: (252) 987-2394
Address: NC 12
Description: The Pea Island Visitor Center offers information, free public restrooms, and paved parking. This facility also houses wildlife exhibits and plenty of nature-related gifts, including an excellent assortment of wildlife books for all ages. The center is open daily year-round from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Off-season you can visit Thurs through Sun from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s closed Christmas Day. The center is staffed by volunteers, so the hours are occasionally modified. This area is an exciting stop for birders. A nature trail winds through the refuge, which is a haven for seasonal and year-round species. Pick up a free nature trail map at the center. Pea Island trails and beaches are open year-round during daylight hours.
2. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
City: Pea Island, NC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (252) 987-2394
Address: NC 12
Description: Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge begins at the southern base of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge and is the first place you come to when entering Hatteras Island from the north. The beach along this undeveloped stretch of sand is popular with anglers, surfers, sunbathers, and shell seekers. On the right side of the road, heading south, salt marshes surround Pamlico Sound, and birds seem to flutter from every grove of cattails. Founded on April 12, 1938, the Pea Island refuge was federally funded as a winter preserve for snow geese. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put his Civilian Conservation Corps to work stabilizing the slightly sloping dunes, building them up with bulldozers, erecting long expanses of sand fencing, and securing the sand with sea oats and grasses. Workers built dikes near the sound to form ponds and freshwater marshes. They planted fields to provide food for the waterfowl. With 5,915 acres that attract nearly 400 observed species of birds, Pea Island is an outdoor aviary. Few tourists visited this refuge when Hatteras Island was accessible only by ferry. After the Bonner Bridge opened in 1964, motorists began driving through this once isolated outpost. Today Pea Island is one of the barrier islands’ most popular havens for birders, naturalists, and sea-turtle savers. Endangered species, from the loggerhead sea turtle to the tiny piping plover shorebirds, inhabit this area. Pea Island’s name comes from the “dune peas” that grow all along the now grassy sand dunes. The tiny plant with pink and lavender flowers is a favorite food of migrating geese. Four miles south of the Bonner Bridge’s southern base, the Pea Island Visitor Center offers free parking and easy access to the beach. If you walk directly across the highway to the top of the dunes, you’ll see the remains of the federal transport Oriental. Its steel boiler is all that remains of the ship, which sank in May 1862. On the sound side of the highway, in the marshes, ponds, and endless wetlands, whistling swans, snow geese, Canada geese, and 25 species of ducks make winter sojourns in the refuge. Savannah sparrows, migrant warblers, gulls, terns, herons, and egrets also alight in this area from fall through early spring. In summer American avocets, willets, black-necked stilts, and several species of ducks nest here. Bug repellent is a must on Pea Island from Mar through Oct. Ticks also cause problems. Check your clothing before getting in the car, and shower as soon as possible if you hike through any underbrush.
3. North Pond Trail
City: Pea Island, NC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Address: NC 12
Description: A birder’s favorite, this wheelchair-accessible nature trail begins at the visitor center parking area and is about a mile long. The trail runs along the top of a dike between two man-made ponds that were begun in the late 19th century and completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The walkway includes three viewing platforms, marshland overlooks, and mounted binoculars.Wax myrtles and live oaks stabilize the dike and provide shelter for scores of songbirds. Warblers, yellowthroats, cardinals, and seaside sparrows land during biannual migrations. The quarter-mile Salt Flats Trail starts at the north end of the North Pond Trail. The US Fish & Wildlife Service manages Pea Island refuge’s ecosystem. Workers plant fields with fescue and rye grass to keep the waterfowl coming back. Pheasants, muskrats, and nutria live along these ponds year-round.
4. Pea Island Visitor Center
City: Pea Island, NC
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (252) 987-2394
Address: NC 12
Description: A paved parking area, free public restrooms, and the Pea Island Refuge Headquarters are 4 miles south of the Oregon Inlet bridge on the sound side of NC 12. Refuge volunteers staff this small welcome station year-round and are available to answer questions. Visitors see exhibits on wildlife, waterfowl, and bird life and browse the small gift shop. In summer the facility is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the off-season the center is open Thurs through Sun from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s closed Christmas Day. Free nature trail maps are available, and in summer months special nature programs are offered, such as bird walks, turtle talks, and guided canoe tours. Hunting, camping, and driving are not allowed in the refuge. Open fires are also prohibited. Dogs must be kept on leashes on the east side of the highway. Firearms are not allowed in the refuge; shotguns and rifles must be stowed out of sight even if you’re just driving straight through Hatteras Island. Fishing, crabbing, boating, and other activities are allowed in the ocean and sound but are prohibited in refuge ponds. About 3 miles farther south on NC 12, a kiosk just beyond the refuge headquarters marks the site of the remains of the nation’s only African-American lifesaving station.