Sand, Sand Everywhere .

by Nicole
Manteo, North Carolina 

[Note: for you subscribers who received this as a recent post, apologies.  The old version of this article was generating hundreds of spam comments per day, not sure why.  We deleted it and reposted it as a new article (different URL) but its date was supposed to be November 17 rather than March 16th.]

When we were in Manteo, North Carolina, we drove to Nag’s Head, Outer Banks to go to to a very unusual park. Jockey’s Ridge State Park is a bunch of really high sand dunes where we went to play and have fun. The 426 acres of sand includes the tallest active sand dune system in the eastern United States.

We also learned some fun facts. For example, did you know that the Wright brother had their first flight there? And that there are an estimated 30 million tons of sand that make up the dunes? If you want to know more about Jockey’s ridge, you can learn more here: http://www.jockeysridgestatepark.com. 

We walked along a path and passed around a bend, to see the dunes for the first time. Although they were only piles of sand, they were amazingly beautiful. Some of them had tiny stones mixed in with the sand and other parts were hard and looked like wood grain. 

We saw someone paragliding, which is a sport in which a person is harnessed to a big kite that looks kind of like a parachute. The person jumps off the hill and glides down. We also saw a class of people learning to
hang-glide We had a picnic lunch on the tallest sand dune over looking the other dunes. 

Cash and I played a lot of games in the sand. We played chase and he buried me in the sand. I rolled down the dunes, which was my favorite game. There was one dune that wasn't that tall, but it was steep. When I rolled down, I actually had to slow myself down in fear of getting hurt. We all had a really fun time at the dunes, and I wouldn’t mind moving to the Outer Banks just so I can go to Jockey's Ridge.

Buried in the sand

A dolphin skull

About to roll down