Attendance soars at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in N.C.

NAGS HEAD, N.C.
As a hang gliding instructor on the East Coast’s tallest sand dune for 21 years, Bruce Weaver is well acquainted with Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
He has seen children and teens gleefully flinging themselves off the dunes and rolling down hills. He has seen young people sprinting up the 90-foot crest, panting adults in their wake. He has seen thousands of people on top of the ridge, slicing the sky with kites. He has regularly seen spectacular sunsets.
It’s no surprise to Weaver that Jockey’s Ridge had record attendance in 2007, the highest of all the state’s parks. Figures released recently by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation show that the 426-acre park had 1.5 million visitors, a 43 percent increase from the previous year.
The park’s appeal, he said, has been consistent through the years: It’s free, it’s outdoors, and its combination of vast mounds of sand, sound access and maritime thicket makes it attractive to all ages and many recreational interests. In addition to hang gliding and kite flying, people can sandboard, kayak, swim, hike on trails, bird-watch and kite-surf.
“There’s a lot to offer for families,” he said.
But the spike in attendance, he said, probably has less to do with the natural beauty and uniqueness of the site.
“I think we just had such beautiful weather,” he said. “There were very few rainy days.”
 

 
Weaver, the manager of Kitty Hawk Kite’s hang gliding school, located at Jockey’s Ridge, said the school had one of its busiest seasons last year. That also had to do with the cooperation of the Outer Banks’ notorious winds. If it’s more than 20 mph, that’s too strong to learn to hang glide. If it’s 25 to 30 mph, it’s too strong to fly. Anything stronger will “sandblast” anyone out on the ridge, he said.
Jockey’s Ridge has been a feature on the Outer Banks for at least 150 years, but it was not established as a park until 1975.
Climbing the three-peak dune system to see the sunset and the panoramic view is the most popular activity for visitors to the park in the summer, said Superintendent George Barnes.Those taking the surprisingly arduous uphill trek during the heat of the day risk burned feet and sunburn, but Barnes said there have been few health issues with people climbing it.
“We’re out there a lot, too,” he said. “We tell people to take it easy.”
As high as the attendance at Jockey’s Ridge has gone up, it has gone down nearly as much at Merchants Millpond State Park in Gates County, which experienced a 41 percent decrease in attendance last year. The park, with about 800 acres of cypress pond, is renowned for recreational activities that include fishing, camping, kayaking and canoeing.
Jay Greenwood, the park’s superintendent, said the drop was mostly related to a bridge
being out between the office and the canoe rental site for much of the year. The statewide burning ban also cut into the number of campers in the fall. In 2005, there were 218,516 visitors; in 2006, there were 193,909.
Greenwood said the bridge is now opened, and he expects things to be back to normal.
“Our visitation numbers should be back,” he said.
 Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com