Carolina Beach State Park — Attraction in Carolina Beach

The ecosystem is truly unique at Carolina Beach and I'm so grateful that the state preserved such an ample portion - of an otherwise hot tourist destination area - to keep natural. When walking the trails it is easy to be immersed in three different habitats: pine tree coastal forrest, swamp land, coastal river front. With North Carolina's coasts being so crisp and clean and covered with vacation homes it's easy to forget what the areas looked like prior to building. Carolina Beach State Park really allows visitors a peak at those one-thriving habitats.

There are nearly nine miles of trails, all of which are marked by colored reflective markers that are nailed into pine trees or on engraved stakes sticking roughly three feet out of the ground. The sand on the trails is thin and smooth (ideal for barefoot hiking if you're up to stepping around twigs and pinecones here and there). On this most recent visit I went on four different trails all of which were easy to walk and navigate. Those trails being the Flytrap Trail (go there in the spring!), Swamp Trail (true to it's name, but you're traveling next to the thinner running swamps rather than over or through them), Campground Trail (easy and a short distance to the sites), and the Sugarloaf Trail (closest to the Marina and a great place to watch birds - I saw a huge woodpecker!). It also appears that the safety of the park is always kept up as there must have been a recent controlled burn of the brush and dried pine needles. When I was there this past time as well as times past there are plentiful winds that lazily drift in from the coast through the tall pine tree tops and it's always a relief to see when such preventative measures are kept up. That said, be weary as that gentle breeze is not enough to keep the bugs - particularly the mosquitos - away unless you're out by the river.

This is a park that could satisfy any kind of camper. To the glampers who require an RV, to the vacationer who is looking to stay in a cabin rather than a hotel, to the backpacker looking to bring a few friends and sleep out in a hammock or tent for the night. At the larger site there are 70 spots near Snow's Cut Bridge where guests can book small cabins, bring their RV's and hook up to power, or sleep by the river in a non-electric site. In addition, there are primitive group camping sites that are easy to get to and can hold up to around 25 guests. I recommend this spot to anyone looking to camp with people who have different camping styles, but still want to spent time together. This a real catch-all...

My husband, two daughters (ages 3 and 7) and myself camped in one of the cabins (#40- Yaupon). It was a last minute trip, and we were lucky to find a cabin available. The cabin had one larger bed in the first room (I'd say about a full size) and two bunk beds in the second room making 5 beds total. The cabin was very clean, and although they are very basic I appreciated that there was a small table with a place to sit in both rooms. The mattresses are pretty thin, and I woke up with muscle spasms in my back, but that's not incredibly unusual for me. My husband and two kids didn't have any complaints about the mattresses. If you're like me and get back pain ridiculously easy than consider bringing either a foam topper or even an air mattress. If your back is fine you should be good. The bathrooms were a short walk away, and one of the cleanest bathrooms I've been to at a State Park. There was a short nature trail near our cabin that brought us to the river. My 3 year old loved digging her toes into the sand, and my 7 year old had a ball watching all the little snails make their way through the water. While staying at the cabin there was an intense storm. I grew up in Carolina Beach and have lived there and the surrounding areas all of my life. This storm was one of the most intense thunderstorms I've been through. Although my 7 year old was laying on top of me screaming, "WE'RE GOING TO DIE! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" for the duration of the storm we were safe and dry in our cabin. The staff at the Carolina Beach State Park was incredibly friendly and helpful. If we get a chance to camp again we will definitely look at the cabins for availability here. Next time I'll bring a...

We came to this campground for the first time on Oct 3rd 2021 because we saw the great ratings. Indeed our first impression was good because our site was clean when we arrived.

If you want peace and quiet, this is not the place. Apparently the other campers didn’t have enough class to be considerate of others and keep their kids quiet after dark- we had to put up with a babbling toddler and a screaming baby at least a couple of hours after night fall (thank you space 17!) We also had to put up with someone driving around blaring music. It did no good to call the rangers. Since we were not going to get the peace and quiet we came for, we decided to leave a day early and Reserve America would not refund our money. It was bad enough that the weather forecasters (Accuweather) couldn’t get it together and be accurate- we got rained on even though we saw clear weather predicted a couple of days earlier. The cherry on top of this terrible experience was the deplorable condition of the restrooms- hair and trash in the showers and stopped up toilets full of feces because someone doesn’t understand the concept of flushing the toilet. I didn’t take my phone to the shower and get pics because I was concerned with privacy issues. Besides I figured if the people in the marina office didn’t care about noise problems they wouldn’t care about nasty showers either.

Never going back there. I’ve been tent camping many times in my life and this was the worst experience. It’s the ghetto...