Two beachfront state parks had more than a million visitors each in 2023, contributing to the total 20.1 million who visited the 42 sites in the North Carolina State Parks system last year.
Fort Fisher State Recreational Area in New Hanover County was the second most visited park in the state with 1.37 million visitors, behind Jordan Lake State Recreation Area in Chatham County, which had 2.5 million visitors.
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The statewide park system had an overall increase of 4% in visitation since 2022, with the nine sites on the coast bringing in a quarter of those visitors, around 4.9 million, officials recently announced.
Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County brought in 1.05 million visitors last year. Other coastal sites that saw growth are Carolina Beach, Dismal Swamp, Hammocks Beach, Merchants Millpond and Pettigrew state parks while numbers for Goose Creek and Jockey’s Ridge state parks show a decline in visitors.
Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement that the growth in park visitation “puts an exclamation point on an incredibly successful Year of the Trail in North Carolina.”
The Great Trails State Coalition celebrated the Year of the Trail in 2023 as a way to promote supporting and investing in North Carolina trails.
“We were excited to welcome more visitors to enjoy our naturally wonderful state parks, especially as several of our parks have recently added new campgrounds and visitor centers and as we celebrated the Year of the Trail,” State Parks Director Brian Strong said in a statement.
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Fort Fisher sees growth
Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, located 18 miles south of Wilmington, has a beach access and allows beach driving.
“It’s nice to see that people are really enjoying Fort Fisher State Recreational Area, so much so that it was the second busiest state park,” Superintendent Jeff Owen told Coastal Review, referring to the 1.38 million visitors to the New Hanover County attraction in 2023. The site had 1.11 million visitors in 2022.
“All areas of our park saw more people, particularly the four-wheel-drive beach and the pedestrian beach,” Owen said. “It has created a strain on our small staff, we only have four rangers, and has been a challenge on our natural resources. The biggest one being nesting sea turtles as their season coincides with our busiest visitation of the year.”
Rangers ask that visitors, whom Owen said “did a really good job last year,” continue to be vigilant when driving on the beach and look for signs of sea turtle nests that are always marked with signs and reflective tape.
“Lastly, but most importantly, please check local weather forecasts before entering the water to swim,” Owen said, adding to ask a staff member what the conditions of the water are when you arrive before swimming or use the pedestrian beach monitored by lifeguards 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Fort Macon numbers steady as park turns 100
Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach is built around a restored pre-Civil War fort and offers beach accesses and a bathhouse.
Superintendent Randy Newman told Coastal Review that, “Overall, we’ve had great numbers.” The Bogue Banks state park averages a million visitors annually and 2023 with its 1.06 million was no different. The park saw 1.02 million visitors in 2022.
“This summer we had great weather and no storms, which always helps with visitation,” Newman said, explaining that much of Fort Macon’s numbers depend on the weather.
Upcoming events at the park include the Mosquito Endurance Run, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 23. The 12-hour race is to raise money to help the park preserve a North Atlantic right whale calf for educational purposes. It will also go to the upkeep of park trails and park enhancements. Register for the race via the Friends of Fort Macon website.
Newman said that the Bonehenge Whale Center in Beaufort is going to articulate the skeleton of the calf found dead in January 2023 near Morehead City so it can be displayed in the park’s visitor center, if feasible. Bonehenge focuses on research and education for whales, dolphins and porpoises found in North Carolina.
Because there’s so few of this endangered species, Newman said they’re hoping to use the skeleton as an education tool.
Looking ahead, the site will soon celebrate a century as a state park.
Fort Macon “will be 100 years old June 4 as a state park,” Newman said, and officials have planned several celebrations.
Starting June 1, there will be a Military Through the Ages event, when the grounds will be filled with reenactors from different periods.
This is the first event of its kind for the park and “Hopefully that’s going to be a success so we can build on in the future,” Newman said.
Newman added that a military band has been invited to perform June 4, and there will be an artillery barrage with cannon June 8. Fort Macon will host a car show June 9 with 100 classic cars representing the 100 years. The regularly scheduled ranger-led programs will take place as well
Also in the works is a Halloween “haunted fort” event to take place the last two weekends of October, hosted by the nonprofit Friends group. Organizations and businesses can make a donation to decorate a casemate for the fundraising event that will support fort preservation.
Newman said last year was the first and this year will be even better.
Two exceptions
State Parks Public Information Officer Kris Anne Bonifacio told Coastal Review that all coastal parks saw small increases in visitation, except Goose Creek and Jockey’s Ridge state parks.
Bonifacio said Goose Creek dropped from 146,155 visitors in 2022 to 125,933 last year. She’s still looking into why that happened.
Rangers at Jockey’s Ridge, which had 982,328 visitors in 2022 but only saw 745,022 in 2023, according to the official count, mentioned that they were having issues with the vehicle counters.
Bonifacio said staff at the Outer Banks site estimate that their actual visitation was equitable or even greater than 2022 numbers, based on what they saw daily throughout the year.
“Visitation data for all of our state parks are estimates, since we have no way of counting every single person who visits each park,” Bonifacio explained.
North Carolina State University is working on a visitation study to review the formula used for vehicle counters. “That study will look at a few different sources of data to get a better idea of trends over the last few years. For our purposes, we are primarily focused on the trends, and we look at visitation numbers holistically and with other things such as reservations, annual pass sales, and events and programming,” she said.
Revenues
The nine coastal parks saw growth in reservations revenue from $690,529 in 2022 to $730,909 in 2023.
Bonifacio reiterated that the state parks system is “designed for the enjoyment of all and revenue generation is not a priority, it does reflect the overall trends” of more visitors coming to state parks.
“Even at our parks that may have gone down in visitation, like Goose Creek State Park, show an increase in overnight reservations, which makes sense given the improvements we have made in their camping facilities over the last few years,” Bonifacio added. “We hope to see the same at Hammocks Beach’s new RV campground for this year and the coming years.”
Hammocks Beach State Park in the Swansboro area is in the process of adding a recreational vehicle, trailer and tent campground as well as backpacking sites on the mainland.
“We anticipate we will open the campground in the summer,” Bonifacio said. The campground will include 12 full hookups sites, four camper cabins, similar to what is at Carolina Beach and Goose Creek state parks, seven drive-up tent sites, and will be three hike-in primitive sites. There will also be a centrally located bathhouse with hot showers.
“We are very excited to offer additional camping facilities at Hammocks Beach State Park, especially ones that are easier to access than the primitive campsites at Bear Island,” Hammocks Beach Superintendent Sarah Kendrick said. “We know our backpack-by-ferry and paddle-in campers have enjoyed the coastal overnight experience for many years, and we look forward to providing that opportunity to those who camp by RV, trailer, or car as well.”
Bonifacio said the former Teachers Building, which has been under restoration since early 2023, that African American educators used as a meeting place in the mid-20th century, is to open this summer as well, “So we are very excited to have that reopen, and we hope our visitors will enjoy those new facilities.”
Growing park system
Also in 2023, the state parks system acquired more than 2,890 acres in the Piedmont and mountains. The system ended the year with 262,074 total acres.
“It was a productive year for the division by all accounts — land protection, planning, natural resource management, operations, safety, and interpretation and education,” stated Strong, the state parks director. “We look forward to the year ahead as we continue our stewardship of these beloved places in North Carolina.”
Bonifacio explained that the system did not have any land acquisitions in 2023 at any of the parks on the coast.
“Due to a multitude of factors, most of our land acquisitions are in the Piedmont and the mountains,” she said. “Land protection plans for many of our coastal parks have limited acreage, and some state recreation areas and state natural areas are at the max planned acres.”
There are some exceptions, notably Merchants Millpond and Pettigrew, which have thousands of acres in future needs as identified in their land protection plans. “We closed last month on three land parcels at Merchants Millpond actually,” she said.
