Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge — Attraction in Wanchese

GATOR, OTTER and BEAR! OH MY!! Can not wait to get a chance to come back and visit with more time. Having read some reviews before we left and STUDYING the maps, I felt I was ready to make the most out of the limited time we had to spend there. We stayed in a great motel in Plymouth, The Road Trip Motel, and left for the park around 5 and arriving around 6 with a few detours on the way. It was recommended to visit at dusk and dawn. We drove in and made our way to Sandy Ridge Trail where there are a couple of port a potties. Right out of the car my friend spotted a gator, he has eagle eyes, you have to look sooo hard to see them so be patient. The trail looked very inviting and looked like an fantastic place to kayak if you are ok with them gators but we didn't have the time and wanted to see as much of the park as time from the vehicle and then pick some spots to look closer at. It wasn't long before we spotted another visitor taking a picture of an owl, so I joined in. After Sandy Ridge Trail we drove around for quite sometime seeing several turtles and a few egrets and sure enough as dusk was approaching we spotted our first bear! It was sooo exciting, I was driving on a sandy road very slowly and saw him first. I stopped a long distance behind and just slowly tagged along behind him. I got some photos from behind my door with the window open just in case because HE WAS HUGE! After leaving the bear, my friend, again with the eagle eye, spotted a very large river otter, I jumped out as fast as I could to get a picture but he was gone in a flash into the canal leaving not so much as a ripple in the water, so elusive. Then we finished off the evening with a final bear spotting and headed back to Plymouth. Wildlife spotting is not like going to a safari park, it takes time and patience. I recommend you study the park and area before your trip, drive slow and look hard! Good luck and enjoy...

There is a separate Google Maps listing for this further north. Anyway...

There are two wildlife trails, Sandy Ridge and Creef Cut. Both are easy and take you through swampy marshlands. I wouldn't expect much of the sought-after wildlife (bears, gators, wolves, etc) on these. The trails are scenic, however. Recommend getting a map at the Creef Cut trailhead or obtain one at the Coastal North Carolina Refuges Gateway Visitor Center if you are coming from that area.

As for the aforementioned wildlife, I believe most come for a chance to see it. Do drive the wildlife road (recommend a higher vehicle, but a small car can do it). It is gravel-sand. Drive the entire length for the chance to see wildlife. We saw owls, deer, a gator, a cotton mouth snake, turtles galore, and the endangered red wolf. Pics uploaded for all of these. The red wolf had a tag/collar, and the population is clearly being studied. He was skittish but stuck around the wildlife road long enough for us to get photos. As far as bears, we saw scat piles galore but didn't spot any. Some piles were still steaming. Talked to a ranger at the Coastal North Carolina Refuges Gateway Visitor Center, and he mentioned that they come out whenever and there is no specific time of day they meander around the road. It is random. Perhaps luck will be with you.

Want...

The Alligator River NWR is the OBX's best kept secret. Just 35 minutes from Kitty Hawk is one of the best places on the East Coast of the USA to see bears (summer months) and migratory birds (winter months). You can visit the Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains National Parks a dozen times, and maybe see a bear or two. At 6pm in the summer at the ARNWR - you'll see a dozen bears in one hour. We saw 15+ bears on one visit, 10+ on another. That's aside from lots of other wildlife: alligators, hawks, kestrels, otters, owls, eagles... We normally get there at around 5pm in the summer and drive the Murphy Peterson Wildlife Drive until it gets too dark. To get there, drive away from Manteo on the NC64; look out for the Alligator River NWR sign as you head West on the NC64. Turn left into the ARNWR, past the maintenance depot on your right and then follow the "Wildlife Drive" signs. The is a mixture of loops and spurs - you can get around the whole drive at 5mph in 2 hours. Pictures are a compilation of three or four visits to the refuge. Note: there are NO facilities on this wildlife drive, just ~10 miles of road (gravel, but passable with any car) to drive along. Stay in (or by) your car to be safe. Do not approach the wildlife. All my pictures are taken with a long lens and by following wildlife...