Corolla, North Carolina

Corolla is the northernmost town reachable by paved road on the Currituck Outer Banks, about 20 miles north of Duck via NC-12. The highway wasn't paved through until 1984, which makes Corolla the area's youngest resort community — before that it was a handful of hunting-club families and a lighthouse keeper's outpost, cut off from the rest of the beach.

The Last Wild Spanish Mustangs

North of where the pavement ends, an 11-mile stretch of undeveloped 4x4 beach is home to the Corolla wild horses, the last herd of Colonial Spanish Mustangs still running free in North Carolina, believed descended from stock left by 16th-century Spanish explorers. The nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund manages the herd, and licensed outfitters run guided Jeep tours onto the beach to see them, since driving there without a permit is restricted to homeowners.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Corolla's other landmark is the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, first lit December 1, 1875 and left in unpainted red brick — the only one of North Carolina's major lighthouses without a painted daymark pattern. Visitors climb its 220 steps for sound-to-ocean views, and the surrounding Whalehead Historic District includes the restored 1920s Whalehead Club hunt-club mansion and a boardwalk through the maritime forest.

Where the Road Ends

Past Corolla, NC-12 stops entirely; the only way north to Carova and the rest of the 4x4-only beaches is driving on the sand itself, past unpaved vacation homes where horses wander into yards. Corolla itself has grown into the shopping and dining center of the northern beaches, anchored by the Currituck Club and TimBuck II village.