Oregon Inlet Campground
Open camping behind the dunes at the southern tip of Bodie Island, beside Oregon Inlet.
- Dare County, NC
- Nearest town: Wanchese
- 4 ft
Coordinates
- Lat
- 35.79923
- Lng
- -75.54504
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
- Dare County
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest town
- Wanchese
- Elevation
- 4 ft
- Max vehicle length
- Not verified
The place
About Oregon Inlet Campground
This is the northern gateway to Cape Hatteras National Seashore and one of the more exposed places to sleep on the Outer Banks. The campground sits on flat sand behind a low dune line with the ocean on one side and the inlet on the other, and there is essentially no shade — the compensation is that you are a short walk from the beach and a few minutes from the Bodie Island Lighthouse and the marshes behind it. Oregon Inlet is a serious piece of water, with a strong tidal current that makes it a famous fishing spot and a dangerous swimming one. Sunrise over the ocean and sunset over the sound both happen within sight of your van.
For van drivers
Getting a van in and out
Access is straight off NC 12 on flat paved road, so getting in is simple for any build. Everything else about barrier island camping is the challenge: constant wind, blown sand that finds every seal and vent, salt air that goes to work on anything unprotected, and no shade at all for a van sitting in August sun. Park nose to the wind, rinse the underside when you leave, and check the hurricane forecast in season — NC 12 is the only road out and it floods and overwashes. Nags Head and Manteo have full services.
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
- 35.799234
- Longitude
- -75.545038
35.7992° N · 75.5450° 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: Wanchese
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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