1-Star, 7-Day, 3-Dog, Camping Trip in the Outer Banks, North Carolina

Spots & Brindle  is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I spent way too much time on Instagram during COVID watching people run around the country and do fun outdoorsy things with their dogs and campers (specifically, @Wessiler and his wife and dogs, whom I'm obsessed with but not in a creepy way). Inspired by all the professional outdoorsy dog people on Instagram, I ALSO planned up adventures with dogs and campers even though I had two dogs and no camper.

As restrictions lifted and we started getting back into life, I fixed this by taking money I had been saving forever for a surf shack and applied it to a camper instead. MY LOGIC was that I would never have enough for a surf shack, no one was ever going to want to rent their surf shack to me with 3 dogs (and least not at a rate I could afford), AND we could take the camper to the mountains AND the beach and see all the places instead of just the same place over and over. So with the headstrong stubbornness of a student who wants an A but has an 77.6 and asks the teacher over and over again "what they can do," even though they have barely done any work and their teacher has told them "there is nothing they can do," I went and got my camper. How and where I got the camper is a whole other story, but suffice it to say for this trip that I got my camper, I got my 3rd dog (Cheeze), and I was now ready to join the ranks of everyone on the Internet having Fun Outdoor Adventures With Their Excessive Amount of Dogs.

Enter the Outer Banks Trip.

The Outer Banks Trip was the first big trip I planned with the camper. My goals were to surf, to spend time with the dogs, and to generally learn how to use the camper, so I planned an all-out, "shut-up; we're going," 2-week trip, which I have detailed for you below...along with some tips on what I would do differently the next time

7-Day Outer Banks Surf & Camper Trip

We are teachers, so I planned this trip for the first two weeks after school ended (~June 20-June 30). The idea was to take two weeks to travel the length of the Outer Banks, starting in Ocracoke and ending near Nags Head. This was immediately shortened to 1.5 weeks after Cheeze broke his toe and we had to cancel the first leg of the trip to Ocracoke. This was then shortened to 1 week after I decided I was having no fun and wanted to go home. Read below for the best parts and for what to avoid.

Day 1-Leave NOVA--Head to Frisco Woods Campground

Since this was a big trip with the camper, we did not make good time getting out of the house and we really regretted it. What should have been a 6 hour trip turned into an 8.5 hour drive that made everyone cranky. Chris was not happy about towing the camper that long, Cheeze did not like being crammed in the backseat with his sibs and spent most of the trip climbing up front to sit on my lap. I did not like having a 40 lb lab on my lap squashing my legs and elbowing me while trying to get comfortable.

All of the traffic ensured that we got to this new campground with the new camper in the dark. This is Chris's least favorite time to arrive at a campground when it's just us, a tent, and a good dog, and now we had 3 dogs and a camper we could barely back up.

This was compounded by us not being able to find our site. The site was basically an unnumbered mud pit, so we drove past the first time, which made Chris really mad because now we had to back up the damn camper around a bend, let alone angle it into the teeny site, and THEN remember how to set it up in the dark. We figured it out, but to the chagrin of everyone around us who was trying to get some sleep.

Day 2- Surf Lesson & Beach Hangout

About a week before we left, I emailed Morgan O'Connell at Endless Summer Surf to see if I could book a surf lesson in Buxton*. I almost always try and find a female instructor because I am not a confident surfer and I need someone with A LOT of patience. Plus, I just like supporting female coaches since they are in the minority, but I could not find a female instructor at that point in time. (And, over time, I've learned that there are patient and aggressive instructors of both sexes!) Luckily, I emailed Morgan a WHOLE THING about my skills and fears and he didn't make me feel like an over-reacting idiot when he responded. He listed what we would work on in the lesson based on what I told him and it sounded reasonable to me. Bingo! I had found my instructor.

Now all I had to do was figure out how to get my dogs and husband to the beach and keep everyone happy.

In anticipation of our beach time, we had bought a Kelty Pop Up tent for the beach. I was feeling really worried about the dogs roasting and we hoped this would be the solution.

At my appointed lesson time, we arrived at the beach, unloaded myself and the dogs and set up my husband in a place where we hoped too many people wouldn't approach. Our dogs don't love strangers so we wanted to keep them out of the way. We set up water bowls for them and hoped for the best. I found Cameron and had a great lesson, feeling more confident when I left then when I had arrived. The dogs, did manage to rest in the pop up tent, but they did NOT like that one of us was in the water and one of was was with them. My husband said they cried the whole time and wondered out loud what they would all do if he went and took a surf lesson (They wouldn't do anything.)

The beach was our big adventure for the morning/early afternoon, and we took the dogs back to the camper to siesta in the afternoon. The campground had hookups, the dogs were enjoying the air conditioning, and I could glimpse the water and I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time since I was little.

Who needs all of that peace and quiet, though!?! Lucky for us, our new neighbors arrived and squeezed onto the campsite next to us with 4 trucks and everyone's mom, brother, and cousin. They drank and wasted no time getting into fights. The spots in front of us filled in with trailers the size of a busses and blocked the small water view. Huh. So much for the relaxation and water views.

In the early evening, we took the dogs down to Hatteras to walk around and check the catch for the day; we then relaxed at the campground for dinner and fell asleep to the calming sounds of our neighbors having it out.

*Due to contamination at the Old Lighthouse Beach, where Morgan used to teach, his lessons are now up in Avon, which is north of Frisco. You can camp at Oregon Inlet if you would like to camp and take lessons with Morgan.

Day 3- Ferry to Ocracoke

Feeling annoyed that we had missed our leg of the trip to Ocracoke, the small island at the tip of the Outer Banks, we got in line for the ferry the next morning so that we could get over there and take a walk. Yes, we loaded all three dogs into the 4Runner and took the ferry over to Ocracoke for the day.

It was not the best idea I have ever had. Chris and I had enjoyed walking around Ocracoke before with ONE DOG, but three was hard to navigate. There were not many sidewalks and the main road was busy-we mostly we walked on the same side roads over and over to get our steps in.

Afterwards, we drove around the Ocracoke Campground to see what we missed-it did actually look pretty green and calm and I was bummed we missed our chance to stay there. I was only bummed for a second, though, because the next top was for BEER!

1718 Brewing Ocracoke is on the way into town from the ferry. Since it was dog-friendly, we did a little drive-by to see if there was a corner we could hid in with the dogs. A lot of breweries are dog-friendly, but rolling up with three grouchy dogs is pushing the limits of any dog-friendly establishment. When possible, and if the brewery is big enough, we find a table in the corner, try and get the dogs to sit under the table, and put one person in charge of going inside to get the beer. It's not ideal, as we take up a lot of space and draw a lot of unwanted attention to ourselves. Friendly people always want to say hi and I always have to say, "no." It sucks but they understand. Friendly people with their dogs also want to say hi, which means we usually have to head them off by a mile to tell them that our dogs do not like other dogs. Again, it's a bummer, but it's necessary communication so that the dogs can relax and take in the environment without added stressors. Even at a brewery, if I have the dogs with me, I have to manage them and pay attention; it's not very relaxing, for the most part.

Thankfully they all fell asleep and we were able to get in a few minutes of beer bliss, but this was the start of my inkling that maybe Instagram was a LYING LIAR and it was NOT FUN to take your crazy dogs everywhere.

I wished I could leave them in house, cool and napping, while Chris and I snuck out for a drink somewhere BY OURSELVES. INSTEAD, I had bought this damn camper and thrown a fit about taking this trip. so. here we were.. Was I going to admit that I was not having fun? NO...because I'm stubborn. Was my husband going to admit he was not having fun? NO...because he is nice and supports me when I have IDEAS. So the tripped continued.

Day 4-More Surfing

Buoyed by our first success of getting the dogs to the beach and me to the surf, I signed up for another lesson when my instructor texted and said conditions looked good.

We repeated the whole rigamarole: dogs in the car, dogs out of car, set up pop-up and BOOM! We were at the beach and I was ready for my lesson. Conditions were good and I got to ride some bigger waves than I was used to.

After my lesson, though, after we had packed up everything and got the dogs halfway to the car, we realized the sand was burning not. A labradoodle who had just jumped out of his owner's car touched the sand, yelped, and jumped back onto the pavement. Yikes. We still had two basketball courts to cover and were not at the hottest part yet. We didn't want to stand there in the burning sun while and dawdle and we didn't want the dogs to walk across hot sand...but since we were halfway there and all packed up, we decided to suck it up and run. Luckily, the dogs were uncomfortable but everyone's pads were intact when we got to the car.

In all of my worrying about getting the dogs to the beach (shade, water, protection), I did not think about burning sand. In retrospect, I guess dog booties would have been a solution, but hadn't thought of that before the trip.

In the evening, we waited for things to cool down and we walked the dogs at Frisco beach. Then, we packed up the best we could for our move up the coast tomorrow to Oregon Inlet.

Day 5

On Day 5, we drove an hour up the coast to get to Oregon Inlet Campground near Nags Head, North Carolina.

Our site was even tinier than our first one and had no shade. The surf conditions had deteriorated so surf lessons were out, and I could hear car traffic from the campsite, which drives me bonkers for some reason. There was also no electricity, so we couldn't control the temperature for the dogs. The temperature that day reached into the low 90's, so after we set up the camper and the shade tent, we sat around and waited until dusk to do the evening walk. As beautiful as the site was, I really couldn't relax with the heat and the dogs and my lack of exercise.

Day 6 -Manteo, NC

When the next day did not cool down or provide anymore shade than the day before, we walked the dogs in the early morning and took a drive to Manteo, NC to get out of the hot sun. I had read that Manteo had some small shops and food, and even though we could not partake while towing three dogs around, I still liked to window shop.

It was easy to find parking and it was a pleasant walk. We strolled next to the water and past a boating museum. The sidewalks in the cutesy part of town were surprisingly wide and somehow able to accommodate us and other visitors. There was lots of shade on the main street and in the neighborhood behind it, so overall it was a satisfying walk.

When we got back to the campground and had nothing to do but wait out the afternoon heat and watch other people try and setup their rigs, I decided I wanted to go home. The dogs were being good sports but they were melting. I really wasn't getting the surf time I had hoped, and I couldn't bike or do the other Outer Banks things I enjoyed unless I abandoned my husband with the dogs... at that didn't seem like much fun either. After a nice sunset walk, we packed up the shade tent and prepped to leave in the morning.

Day 7-Time to Go

Oregon Inlet IS a beautiful campground. I felt miles away from anything in the outdoor showers and loved looking at these dunes and hearing the surf. I felt feral is a good way.

Ultimately, though, the weather was just getting hotter and even though we had bought a small generator in anticipation of having no electricity, this just meant we'd be sitting inside the camper all day until it was cool enough to get outside. This was not how we were hoping to spend our time (we wanted to be outside and active), so we packed up the dogs and hit the road, already brainstorming what changes we would make for the next trip.

Campgrounds

• Frisco Woods Campground

• Oregon Inlet Campground

Activities

• Surf lessons with Cameron at Endless Surf

• Take the ferry to Ocracoke & get a beer @ 1718 Brewing Ocracoke

• Walk around Manteo