Ocracoke Campground
Behind the dunes on Ocracoke Island, reachable only by ferry — a genuine sense of being offshore.
- Hyde County, NC
- Nearest town: Ocracoke
- 5 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 35.12638
- Lng
- -75.91924
Van camping
You can drive in and sleep in your van here.
At a glance
The basics
What to expect
National seashore
Open sand and wind, no shade, hookups rare.
- County
- Hyde County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Ocracoke
- Elevation
- 5 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Ocracoke Campground
Ocracoke is separated from the rest of the state by water, and every vehicle on it arrived by ferry, which changes the atmosphere completely. The campground sits behind the dune line a few miles from the village, with the beach a short walk over the sand and thirteen miles of undeveloped shoreline running off in either direction. Ocracoke village at the south end is a working harbour with a British cemetery, wild ponies in a pasture nearby, and the tight lanes of a place that grew before cars. Nights are properly dark, and the sky over the sound is excellent.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
Plan the ferry before anything else. Vehicle ferries serve the island from Hatteras and from the mainland at Cedar Island and Swan Quarter, the longer crossings take reservations and fill in summer, and a van pays by length — know yours. Once ashore the roads are flat and paved and the driving is trivial. Bring more water and food than you think you need, because resupply on the island is limited and expensive. Same coastal exposure as the rest of Hatteras: wind, sand, salt, no shade, and a hurricane plan that accounts for the fact that leaving requires a boat.
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 nps.gov(opens in a new tab).
Where it is
Coordinates & directions
Decimal degrees
- Latitude
- 35.126382
- Longitude
- -75.919237
35.1264° N · 75.9192° 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: Ocracoke
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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