This year for our sixth wedding anniversary we took an entire week off to camp, hike and explore new places! I can’t share all of our experiences in one post, so this will be a five part series (whoa!). I hope you enjoy it, and I encourage you to explore new parks on your own!

Patrick and I haven’t taken a full week off for ourselves in about two years, so we were overdue. We usually book hiking and camping trips in North Carolina’s mountains (near the Tennessee border) but we wanted to explore the eastern part of the state.

In February, we camped at Carolina Beach State Park and had a beautiful time. It was perfect because it was off season so we could take the pups to the beach. We had to be strategic with this trip since all beaches were in season and packed with visitors.

As followers and fans of the state’s Passport Program, we opened the map and searched for a few parks that were somewhat in the same vicinity so we could experience new parks, collect our stamps and hike more miles. We found Pettigrew State Park, Jockey’s Ridge State Park, Dismal Swamp State Park, Merchants Millpond State Park and Goose Creek State Park. We booked a great campsite at Pettigrew State Park, mapped out the other parks and found they were about an hour away. And just like that, we committed!

The drive to a secluded oasis

The windows were down, favorite songs turned up, arms out the window, the country wind and southern heat were hitting our faces… yes, vacation was upon us, and we were almost to our destination!

As we were driving to Pettigrew we started to realize why it’s one of North Carolina’s “dark sky areas” by how much farmland that surrounded the area. A plane was flying above crop dusting a small section of the thousands of acres of crops. We found out from a local later in the week that he loves having an audience! I’ll take an air show any day!

We were greeted by a ranger at the main office who seemed appreciative we were “staying for a while.” She proceeded to tell us, “when people come out here to camp, they come for reasons.”

We found ‘the reasons’

We pulled up to campsite No. 3. A site shaded by the canopy of cypress trees all around us and we noticed it was large enough to fit three more tents! We set up camp, the pups realized they were in the woods, it was official – we were here to stay!

We set out on our first hike for the evening just to explore the park a little before we planned other hikes. Pettigrew not only offers hiking but boating and fishing on Lake Phelps and exploration of Somerset Place.

Hikes at Pettigrew (all trails are rated as easy and distances are one-way):

• Cemetery Trail, 0.34 mile
• Bee Tree Trail, 1.3 miles
• Lake Shore Trail, 0.25 mile
• Moccasin Trail, 2.8 miles
• Morotoc Trail, 4.2 miles

Facts about Lake Phelps:

• It is North Carolina’s second largest natural lake.
• It is five miles across and seven miles wide. It has an average depth of 4.5 feet and a maximum depth of nine feet.
• It is believed to be more than 38,000 years old.
• Scientists have long wondered about the origin. To this day, no explanation has gained universal acceptance.
• Artifacts reveal the presence of American Indians as early as 8,000 B.C.
• Thirty dugout canoes were found in the lake.
• Archeologists believe the Algonquian Indians sank their canoes in the lake to store them until the next hunting season.
• One of the canoes is 37 feet in length, the longest American Indian dugout canoe in the southeastern U.S.
• Another canoe is the second oldest in the nation, dated to be 4,390 years old.

Hiking highlights:

• Lake Shore Trail: This is a beautiful boardwalk trail that takes you out to the swimming area. There is no lifeguard on duty so it’s a ‘swim at your own risk’ area but remember, the lake averages 4.5 feet, so it’s a safe spot to cool off!
• Cemetery Trail: This is a trail that will take you out to where the Pettigrew’s have been laid to rest. There is a lot of great history in this park. James Johnston Pettigrew was a general under Robert E. Lee’s command during the Civil War. Pettigrew led “Pickett’s Charge” during the Battle of Gettysburg. Pettigrew died two weeks after his 35th birthday from mortal wounds. Pettigrew, his grandfather and father are buried at the end of the Cemetery Trail. There a few words when you experience their gravesite. It is a quiet, peaceful place.
• The Moccasin Trail was our favorite! We hiked out on a very hot late morning but what we hiked to was worth the sweat. You hike to a 350-foot boardwalk that takes you out to Moccasin Overlook. You walk over crystal clear water and through cypress trees draped with Spanish moss. This is a great spot to stop and eat a small lunch!

We realized what the ranger meant when people ‘came here for reasons’ after we felt the pure, natural and secluded life the park offered. This park is hands-down a gem in North Carolina. Patrick and I were really able to indulge in the simple life and enjoy the darkest nights we had ever experienced.

I encourage you to look into Pettigrew for your next visit! I know you will hike it and like it!