Jockey's Ridge State Park

Spread your wings and lift-off with other aerial enthusiasts on Jockey’s Ridge, the tallest sand dune in the East. You can get instructions and rent all the gear you’ll need for hang-gliding at Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head, plus earn the required USHGA certification. The sport is very popular with visitors who want to experience flying first-hand close to the very spot where Wilbur and Orville Wright first took to the skies in 1903. If you aren’t up to hang gliding, do the next best thing and go fly a kite from the top of the dunes. You may also go sandboarding, sea kayaking, windsurfing, picnicking, and swimming. (Camping and ...

Spread your wings and lift-off with other aerial enthusiasts on Jockey’s Ridge, the tallest sand dune in the East. You can get instructions and rent all the gear you’ll need for hang-gliding at Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head, plus earn the required USHGA certification. The sport is very popular with visitors who want to experience flying first-hand close to the very spot where Wilbur and Orville Wright first took to the skies in 1903. If you aren’t up to hang gliding, do the next best thing and go fly a kite from the top of the dunes. You may also go sandboarding, sea kayaking, windsurfing, picnicking, and swimming. (Camping and four-wheeling are not allowed.) The 266-acre coastal park supports three ecosystems — the dunes, the maritime thicket, and the Roanoke Sound estuary — all excellent venues for nature study. The park, one of the most popular attractions on the Outer Banks, offers some outstanding educational and instructional programs on crabbing, birding, kayaking, and kite-flying.

About the Expert

Carol Timblin has contributed to numerous guidebooks and authored four editions of Houghton Mifflin's Best Places to Stay in the South.