Jockey's Ridge Sound Access

Most visitors to Jockey's Ridge State Park head straight for the ocean-side entrance off Croatan Highway and climb the big dune. The sound access is the park's other side — a separate entry on the west end that opens onto the Roanoke Sound instead of the Atlantic. It's a quieter corner of the same park, home to the tallest natural sand dune system on the East Coast, but the draw here is the water, not the summit.

This is one of the better sunset spots on the northern Outer Banks: wide-open sky over the water, with the sound and the mainland tree line filling the horizon. A boardwalk leads through maritime thicket and marsh down to the shoreline, and the shallow, protected water here draws paddleboarders, kayakers, and windsurfers looking for calmer conditions than the ocean side offers.

• Part of Jockey's Ridge State Park — no entrance fee, as with all North Carolina state parks
• Roanoke Sound shoreline access on the park's western side, separate from the main dune entrance
• Better suited to sunset-watching and paddling than dune climbing