Bald Head Island, NC

“I’m on turtle time.” – Unknown

If you want to know what heaven on Earth is like, then Bald Head Island (BHI) is a place you have to check out! You will get to know what it’s like to live island life and disconnect from the rest of the world. This place is magical and once you experience what BHI has to offer, you will never want to leave.

I always liked nature and the outdoors growing up but this is the first place that I actually fell in love with nature, the outdoors, and everything in it. So you may be asking what is so special about Bald Head Island? Yes, it’s an island with nice, quiet beaches, but it’s also so much more. Let’s start at the beginning.

To get to BHI, you have to take a ferry and you leave your car on the mainland! The ferry leaves out of South Port, NC just a little bit outside of Wilmington. It’s about a 30 minute ferry ride. Once you reach the island, you can rent a bike, a golf cart, or use the tram service. The tram is only used to get to your house, otherwise the only modes of transportation on the island are golf carts, bikes, and your own two feet!

It’s only fitting since the main mode of transportation is a golf cart, that the island has a golf course and clubhouse. I have never golfed on the island before, but it would be cool to do one day. The first time I visited BHI I was about 12 or 13 years old and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to get around in golf carts. It was the first time I had ever ridden in one. I loved sitting in the backseat and going backwards. I loved that there were no cars (other than the first responders), everything was simple, slower, and surrounded by nature all the time.

• 

• 

• 

One of my favorite things was driving down North Bald Head Wynd / Federal Road. This street goes from the marina all the way down the island and it is mostly tree covered. The trees form what look like a tunnel. I can’t describe in words how it makes me feel other than magical. I also like riding my bike down this road. I road my bike pretty much everywhere on the island during the day. Here is a map BHI if you’re interested in seeing the roads I’m talking about.

The island has a Conservancy with educational programs run by college students who intern there all summer. (Being an intern on BHI was my dream growing up.) There are a variety of different family friendly programs to sign up for. Over the years I have done a handful of them, but my all time favorites were the turtle walk and tagging along with the interns for an all night beach ride in their ATV looking for sea turtles coming up the beach. These two experiences were AMAZING!

The turtle walk starts at the Conservancy after the sun has gone down. The interns talk about the turtles and some safety measures for yourself and the turtles. All flashlights have to be covered in red cellophane because turtles are attracted to bright white light (aka the moon) and bright flashlights may confuse the turtle in going the wrong direction. I have seen a number of nesting turtles because of the time I spent on BHI. Like I mentioned in my previous post about OBX, it’s one of the most beautiful things to see.

The interns patrol the beaches all night from about 10pm to about 6am. They are looking for tracks from the nesting turtle coming out of the water to lay eggs and they keep an eye on the nests already laid to see if any hatchlings are making their way out.

Watching a nest boil (hatch) is also super amazing! It took a few years before I actually saw a nest hatch and a lot of dedication. There were multiple times where my cousin and slept on the beach next to the nest waiting. Sleeping on the beach was something I really loved. The stargazing on BHI is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The Milky Way is so clear. Never in my life have I ever actually been able to see it so bright and clear. That view is always in my mind and it’s one of the things I love most about BHI. If you ever want to see / feel how small you actually are (in a good way), stand on South Beach and look up at the sky, it’s inspirational and humbling. It’s hard to describe, it’s just something you will have to experience for yourself to understand what I’m talking about.

All over the island the nests are marked with signs letting you know it’s a turtle nest and what number nest it is. There is also a metal cage placed over the top to keep predators from digging up the nest and to protect the nest from beachgoers digging in the sand. Sea turtle nests usually hatch from late July to early November depending on when the nest was laid. Going to BHI has taught me a lot about sea turtles and their nests. If you see a nest with an indentation it could mean the hatchlings are moving around under the sand digging their way out. If you lay your head down on the sand sometimes you may even be able to hear them moving around. As the hatching date gets closer, the interns make a runway for the baby turtles to help guide them to the ocean.

After a nest hatches, the interns will wait a few days and then they will do an excavation of the nest. They dig up the nest, help any stragglers that didn’t make it out of the sand, release them, count all the eggs (hatched and unhatched), and then cover it back up. The excavations are pretty cool to see. They usually do them in the early morning. To view the schedule of excavations and other programs the BHI Conservancy offers check out their website!

Below are some pictures from one of the excavations I saw and what the nests look like all around the island.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Turtles aren’t the only wildlife you’ll see on BHI. There are lizards, alligators, deer, foxes, raccoons, frogs, and so much more living on the island. The island is home to some pretty big alligators. Checkout the BHI Conservancy Instagram to see some of the wildlife on the island. There is an overlook into a pond/swamp area that a gator hangs out in. At one point they had to close it because people were feeding the alligator. DON’T DO THAT! Leave the animal alone and just observe, don’t put yourself and others in danger. There is also a nature trail that you can walk along and see some more wildlife. One year we saw baby foxes playing in the middle of the road, they were really cute. On the first trip we took to BHI, we were all pretty young and had a good time chasing the lizards around. Another trip, we were driving back to our house late at night after spending some time near a turtle nest and a couple raccoons almost jumped in our golf cart while we were driving down South Bald Head Wynd (they were running along side our golf cart, it was wild).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The first time I visited BHI, my family rented a house with my cousins for a week located in the maritime forest, I believe it was on Edward Teach Wynd. We stayed for a week and it was over the 4th of July holiday. For the 4th of July they have a golf cart parade. Anyone staying on the island can participate. It was a lot of fun. We decorated the golf cart with red, white, blue, and I’m pretty sure we had homemade paper hats.

Over the years my family has rented different houses on BHI. For several years in a row we rented this really cute house on South Beach, it wasn’t ocean front but the beach was right across the street. Another one of favorite houses was near the marina and it had a widows walk on the roof. There was literally a ladder with a hatch in the ceiling to get up. At first I thought it was an attic but it was a nice surprise to climb up to the roof. I spent a lot of time up there at night.

North Carolina has a lot of lighthouses down it’s coast. On Bald Head Island, the lighthouse is named Old Baldy. When I was there you were able to climb the lighthouse to the light tower and get a 360 degree view of the island. It is really cool. I’m not sure if you’re still able to climb to the top, but if it’s still open, check it out! There is also a little gift shop and museum at Old Baldy. Below are some photos from the top of Old Baldy.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So let’s not forget about the beach. There are different beach accesses around the island. South beach is quiet, the waves are usually never rough or big. It’s great for swimming and body surfing and boogie boarding. South beach has a great view of the sunset. We took so many family photos there. Our classic and most cherished family photo is all of us kids jumping in the air and then of course we get one of all our parents jumping too.

• 

• 

East beach (access 39) is where you want to go if you like bigger waves, little bit more rougher water. You can surf on East beach, it’s actually where I surfed for the first time in my life. This beach is also great for body surfing, boogie boarding, and swimming. The Frying Pan Shoals is accessible from here too. There is usually a good amount of people fishing off the Shoals. Since there are usually people fishing you can see some cool marine life. We saw someone catch a small shark. I’ve seen so much wildlife in general on East Beach. One day there were black tip sharks swimming around, my brother got stung by a jellyfish, manta rays were jumping out of the water, and the coolest was seeing a whale tail come up out of the water.

The island has a grocery store, ice cream shop, and a few options for dining out. We never really went out to eat much, my family likes to cook so we went to the grocery store for supplies. I do remember we went out to dinner once to Mojo’s on the Harbor and it was good. I believe the name changed and it’s now called Jules’ Salty Grub & Island Pub. The ice cream place was right next to the grocery store. Also, near the grocery store, there are some cool shops to check out. Here is a list of all the places to eat on the island.

One of the last visits I had to BHI I signed up for a 5K race. It was called The Turtle Trot. It was so fun! I am not that great at running. I was a swimmer for seventeen years for a reason, but this was a really fun thing to do and it was my first ever 5K / run in general. I signed up online, through the BHI Conservancy website. Registration on race day was at BHIC and I got my number and t-shirt. The race started on the road and then it did go out on the beach and ended back at BHIC. Running on the sand is hard, I think running in the sand with shoes is harder, but I had a great time. My cousins were soccer players so they were running far ahead of me but I was in my own world going at my own pace, taking in the sights.

• 

• 

• 

Another fun thing to do is rent kayaks. There is a marsh area near Old Baldy where you can kayak through and see some cool things. I saw a stingray up close while I was paddling near a small grassy island. Above are some pictures from kayaking. Here is the website for those interested in seeing the other rental options and activities there is to do.

I hope I did this place justice trying to explain all the wonderful things about BHI. I have so many great memories here and thousands and thousands of photos, it would take me weeks to look through them all. I can’t wait to go back someday and relive the magic of this amazing island. I hope if you choose to visit someday you will feel the same and love it as much as I do. The experiences and memories you will take back home with you will last a lifetime.

• 

• 

•