Ramp 63

Ramp 63 is one of the numbered beach-access ramps cut into the dune line on Ocracoke's undeveloped north end, part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Ocracoke village and Silver Lake Harbor sit at the island's southwest tip; the rest of the roughly thirteen-mile-long island beyond the village is National Park Service land reached via NC-12, with ramps like this one giving four-wheel-drive vehicles and walkers a way down onto the sand. An NPS beach-driving permit is required before you take a vehicle past the ramp, same as anywhere else on the seashore.

There's nothing built at the ramp itself — no restrooms, no shade structure, no store — so bring what you'll need for the stretch of beach you're headed to: sun protection, a tide plan, and enough daylight to get back to the village or the ferry. What you get in return is uncrowded, undeveloped shoreline backed by dune and maritime scrub, the same wild landscape that runs most of the island's length.