# Outer Banks & the Sound Country *NC 12, two ferries and the Albemarle backwaters* Outer Banks & the Sound Country is a ~300-mile back-roads route from Dismal Swamp to New Bern on US 17, US 64 and NC 12, driven in 3–4 days, that stays off I-95 (by 200 miles) through the Atlantic Coast. - **Drive:** Dismal Swamp → New Bern - **Distance:** ~300 mi - **Days:** 3–4 - **Highways:** US 17, US 64, NC 12 - **Avoids:** I-95 (by 200 miles) - **Region:** Atlantic Coast - **Themes:** Natural Beauty, History & Markers, Cult Classics & Pop Lore, Eats & Institutions The slowest road is a boat: this route includes two state ferries, a swamp canal George Washington surveyed, the dune where powered flight began, the lighthouse they moved a half mile inland, and the inlet where Blackbeard lost his head. Sound-side Carolina keeps its own time — 'hoi toider' accents, decoy carvers, shrimp burgers — and hands you to US 17 at the birthplace of Pepsi. Markers: North Carolina's silver highway markers are dense here; lighthouse passport stamps for the completists. ## The drive, segment by segment ### The Albemarle *Dismal Swamp → Roanoke Island · ~95 mi* Washington's canal, Edenton's waterfront perfection (and its 1774 women's tea party), then over the sounds to Roanoke Island, where 115 colonists became one word: CROATOAN. Stops: - **Dismal Swamp Canal** (South Mills) · Natural Beauty — The oldest continually operating man-made canal in America (opened 1805), surveyed by George Washington. The swamp's deeper history: maroon communities of escaped slaves who built free lives in its fastness. - **Edenton** (Edenton) · Small Towns — The 1767 courthouse green running down to the sound — and the 1774 Edenton Tea Party, 51 women in organized political resistance, among America's first. Harriet Jacobs hid seven years in an attic here before her escape; her memoir told the world. - **Fort Raleigh & The Lost Colony** (Manteo) · History & Markers — Roanoke, 1587: Virginia Dare's birthplace, then 115 people gone, one carved word — CROATOAN. The waterside drama has run since 1937 (Andy Griffith spent five seasons in tights here). The 400-year-old Mother Vine scuppernong still fruits nearby. ### NC 12: The Banks *Nags Head → Ocracoke · ~85 mi* Kitty Hawk's twelve seconds, Jockey's Ridge sunsets, the moved lighthouse at Hatteras, the free ferry to Ocracoke and Blackbeard's last anchorage — with wild horses at the north spur. Stops: - **Wright Brothers Memorial (spur)** (Kill Devil Hills) · History & Markers — December 17, 1903: twelve seconds, 120 feet. The four flight markers pace out the distances in the sand — shorter than a 747's wingspan, which is the whole point. - **Corolla's Wild Horses (spur)** (Corolla) · Natural Beauty — Colonial Spanish mustangs — shipwreck descendants — roaming the 4x4 beaches past the pavement's end. Fifty feet minimum; they enforce it better than the ordinance does. - **Jockey's Ridge** (Nags Head) · Natural Beauty — The East Coast's tallest natural dune system — hang gliders by day, soundside sunsets that empty the beach by evening. The dune ate a mini-golf course in the '70s; it occasionally returns pieces. - **Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station** (Rodanthe) · History & Markers — The 1874 station of the surfmen who rowed into burning seas — the 1918 Mirlo rescue is the service's great epic. Summer beach-apparatus drills still fire the breeches buoy. - **Cape Hatteras Lighthouse** (Buxton) · History & Markers — America's tallest brick lighthouse (198 ft), famously moved 2,900 feet inland in 1999 ahead of the eating sea. Offshore: Diamond Shoals, the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic' — 600-plus wrecks and counting. - **Ocracoke** (Ocracoke) · History & Markers — Free ferry in; pirate history everywhere. Blackbeard fought his last at Teach's Hole (November 22, 1718 — head to a bowsprit). Islanders still carry the 'hoi toider' brogue; the British Cemetery holds four sailors from the 1942 U-boat war, forever England. ### Down East & the Crystal Coast *Cedar Island ferry → New Bern · ~120 mi* The 2¼-hour Pamlico crossing, decoy-carving Harkers Island, Beaufort's pirate archaeology, shrimp burgers in Morehead City — ending at Tryon Palace and the pharmacy that invented Pepsi. Stops: - **The Cedar Island Ferry** (Pamlico Sound) · Natural Beauty — Two and a quarter hours across open sound — gulls drafting the stern, cars dozing, the best cheap boat ride in America. Reserve ahead; the schedule is the itinerary. - **Core Sound Museum (spur)** (Harkers Island) · History & Markers — Decoy carvers and Down East boatbuilding culture, community-built and proud. Passenger ferries run to Cape Lookout's diamond light and Shackleford's wild horses. - **Beaufort & the Queen Anne's Revenge** (Beaufort) · History & Markers — Blackbeard's flagship, found in the inlet in 1996, surfaces cannon by cannon at the Maritime Museum. The Old Burying Ground keeps the girl buried in a rum barrel (her father's promise to bring her home — kept, after a fashion). - **Sanitary Fish Market** (Morehead City) · Eats & Institutions — Shrimp burgers and hushpuppies on the same working dock since 1938 — the name was a Depression-era hygiene boast, now a badge. - **Birthplace of Pepsi** (New Bern) · Cult Classics & Pop Lore — Caleb Bradham's corner pharmacy still pours 'Brad's Drink' — invented 1893, renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 — at the original counter. Tryon Palace's gardens and the 1710 Swiss-founded streets round out the oldest-feeling town in the state. ## Tips and best time to go - Reserve the Cedar Island (or Swan Quarter) ferry the moment dates firm up; Hatteras–Ocracoke is free and first-come. - NC 12 floods and occasionally breaches in storms — check NCDOT before committing to the Banks. - Off-season (Nov–Mar) is moody perfection, but call ahead: half of Ocracoke hibernates. ## Worth a detour - **Somerset Place** — Creswell: one of the South's most honestly interpreted plantation sites, reconstructed around the lives of the 850 people enslaved there. - **Digger's Dungeon** — Poplar Branch: home base of Grave Digger, the monster truck — a shrine of crushed cars and airbrushed flames on the Currituck mainland. - **Lake Mattamuskeet** — Winter: tens of thousands of tundra swans on a giant shallow lake with a lodge-turned-lighthouse. The emptiest beautiful road in the state. ## Spurs & side-roads - NC 12 north: Kitty Hawk & Corolla - Harkers Island ## Frequently asked questions ### How long is Outer Banks & the Sound Country and how many days does it take? Outer Banks & the Sound Country is about 300 miles and takes 3–4 days at a back-roads pace. ### Where does Outer Banks & the Sound Country start and end? It runs from Dismal Swamp to New Bern. ### Which highways does Outer Banks & the Sound Country follow? It follows US 17, US 64 and NC 12. ### Which interstate does Outer Banks & the Sound Country replace? It avoids I-95 (by 200 miles), using US 17, US 64 and NC 12 instead. ### How many stops are on Outer Banks & the Sound Country, and what are the highlights? 14 stops are mapped, including Dismal Swamp Canal, Edenton, Fort Raleigh & The Lost Colony, Wright Brothers Memorial (spur) and Corolla's Wild Horses (spur). ### Which ready-made itineraries include Outer Banks & the Sound Country? Tidewater & the Outer Banks (4 days), Sounds & Banks (7 days), The Whole Hog (28 days) and US 17: Outer Banks to Florida (8 days). ## Ready-made itineraries using this route - [Tidewater & the Outer Banks](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/tidewater-outer-banks) — 4 days, ~430 mi - [Sounds & Banks](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/sounds-banks-week) — 7 days, ~560 mi - [The Whole Hog](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/whole-hog) — 28 days, ~4300 mi - [US 17: Outer Banks to Florida](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/us17-end-to-end) — 8 days, ~820 mi ## Connects with - [US 58: The Last Capital Road](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us58-last-capital) — Martinsville → Suffolk - [The Inner Banks](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/inner-banks) — Washington → Ocracoke (via Swan Quarter ferry) - [VA 5 & the Colonial Parkway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/va5-colonial) — Richmond → Yorktown --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/outer-banks Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-05