Carolina Beach State Park
Venus flytraps growing wild, an ancient dune ridge and a marina on the Cape Fear River near Wilmington.
- New Hanover County, NC
- Nearest town: Carolina Beach
- 15 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 34.04328
- Lng
- -77.91231
Van camping
You can drive in and sleep in your van here.
At a glance
The basics
What to expect
State park
Reservable sites, paved or well-graded roads, bathhouses in season.
- County
- New Hanover County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Carolina Beach
- Elevation
- 15 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Carolina Beach State Park
Carolina Beach State Park is one of very few places on earth where the Venus flytrap grows wild, and the park's trails run through the damp savanna and pocosin where it lives alongside pitcher plants and sundews. Sugarloaf Dune is a sixty-foot relict sand hill that served as a landmark for river pilots and a Civil War encampment, and the trail over it gives views across the Cape Fear. The park has a marina on the river rather than ocean frontage, so the beach itself is a short drive away in town. Wooded campsites under live oak and pine make it noticeably more sheltered than the barrier island campgrounds further north.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
Easy paved access just off US 421 and a developed campground with drive-in sites among trees — real shade, which is a meaningful advantage over the open dune camping at Hatteras. Wilmington is fifteen minutes for any supplies, and Carolina Beach town is closer still. Summer brings mosquitoes and biting flies in the savanna areas, so screens matter here. Cell signal is good.
Written for a high-roof van, not a pickup. Surfaces and clearances change with the weather and with the season’s roadwork — the official page below is the last word.
On the ground
Facilities & fees
Not verified means nobody has confirmed it — treat it as unknown, never as a no. 8 of the 8 below are still unconfirmed.
- Restrooms
- Not verified
- Drinking water
- Not verified
- Showers
- Not verified
- Dump station
- Not verified
- Hookups
- Not verified
- Campfires
- Not verified
- Dogs allowed
- Not verified
- Reservations
- Not verified
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified — check with the park
- Season
- Not verified — check with the park
- Fees
- Not verified — check with the park
The last word on all of this is ncparks.gov(opens in a new tab).
Where it is
Coordinates & directions
Decimal degrees
- Latitude
- 34.043277
- Longitude
- -77.912313
34.0433° N · 77.9123° W
No map tiles here on purpose. Half of these places have no signal at the gate, so coordinates you can save offline beat a map that needs one. Drop them into your phone before you turn off the pavement.
Nearest gas and groceries: Carolina Beach
Before you go
Official sources
Fees, site counts, length limits and closures change season to season. Everything we have not confirmed ourselves is marked Not verified above rather than guessed at — and where we do have a number, the operator’s own page still wins.
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