Small-group trips for the quiet season, built around the island's best nights and highest water. They're still on the drawing board, and we'd like to know who'd come.
Fall and winter only, outside the spring and summer nesting season, when the island is quiet and the nights are long.
Cross in daylight, set up camp on open sand, and spend the night under one of the darkest skies on this stretch of coast. Moon phases, constellations, and a meteor shower or a Florida rocket launch when the calendar lines up.
Season: fall and winter, around new moons and meteor peaks like December's Geminids.
Paddle the marsh side on one of the year's highest tides, when the water climbs into the grass. Learn what king tides show about rising seas, and photograph the high water for the NC King Tides Project.
Season: fall and early winter king tides, in calm, daylight conditions only.
Binoculars, a spotting scope and the quiet season. Shorebirds and waterbirds working the flats, the marsh and the inlet, watched from a respectful distance and logged to eBird.
Season: fall migration through winter.
A first island camping trip with the skills built in: reading tides for the crossing, choosing a legal campsite, fire and waste the right way, and a beach cleanup before the ride home.
Season: fall and winter.
If approved, the trips would follow the authorization's conditions. Here's what we've built them around.
About the authorization: Special Activity Authorization, NC Coastal Reserve. Authorizations for ongoing activities run through December 31 and are renewed each year. We're an independent operation, not part of the Reserve.
Not yet. These are proposals pending a Special Activity Authorization from the NC Coastal Reserve. Nothing is scheduled or for sale. The interest list just tells us who'd come.
Only after authorization, and only in fall and winter. If that happens, the interest list hears first.
Nothing is priced. We're not taking money for these.
Yes. Masonboro is open to everyone, free, year-round. The Field Guide and Trip Planner cover how.
No commitment and no payment. We'll email you if these trips are approved, and use your picks to decide what to offer first.