Run Hill Dune
About 5 miles south of Run Hill is Jockey’s Ridge - the more famous dune on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In between is a four mile stretch of maritime forest. Run Hill is shifting southward, encroaching one grain at a time upon this forest. In this collision, there’s intrigue. I seek to find the unique when I travel, and a sand dune swallowing up a forest is something I find quite intriguing.
After fifteen minutes of trudging, I come across a steep, down-sloping ravine that seems to be the apex of the collision. At the bottom is a pond, adding a third element to the mix. This beautiful place – where forest, dune, and pond collide - instantly becomes my favorite spot I’ve ever found over my 40 years of coming to the Outer Banks. I linger here, deep in the ravine, enjoying the sounds of intense quietness… and the gurgle of brackish waters… and the occasional tweet of birds that I’m certain are thrilled to have found a home in such a unique and beautiful place.
Forests are not the only thing that Run Hill collides with. On the western edge, far from the 10th Avenue pullover, Run Hill meets the marsh of Albemarle Sound. These intersecting ecosystems require a second day’s visit, so same time next morning I left in the dark for Run Hill again.
As a crow flies, Albemarle Sound is a mere 3,000 feet from my parked car; however, the zigzag-drunk-like path I chose as I ambled up and over the undulations of the dune made it at least twice a far. Reaching the edge of the thriving marsh of Albemarle Sound elicited similar feelings to yesterday’s find: another favorite spots on the Outer Banks. So unique is this intersection of sand and marsh that I linger even longer than at yesterday’s find. And here too I spend time simply listening to the quietness, brackish gurgles, and happy tweets.
Sometimes when traveling, I gather in quantity – trying to collect locations, but at the cost of not becoming fully immersed. There are merits in that approach, but having now spent back-to-back days at Run Hill has reminded me that going deeper and further, at a slower pace, and discovering the full uniqueness of a place brings real contentment. At Run Hill, there are no more scratches to itch.
As a teenager living spending my summers at my Dad's house in the Outer Banks, the locals and I regularly frequented Run Hill late at night. I have so many memories of trecking through the sand dunes in the dark. We would spend hours on the hill just before the trees, looking for falling stars. I don't know if it still works, but when on the top of the hill you could yell into the trees and it would echo. It was so cool..such a magical place. Great memories. I now have teenagers and was thinking about how much I would love to take them there and decided to google it and see if it still exists. Low and behold, I found your blog. Thanks for sharing your adventure, brought back a lot of memories.
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