Trailhead for the Hammock Hills Nature Trail at Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Length: .8 mile loop
Time: 30 minutes, including reading the information panels
Difficulty: Easy, with a few small hills

The Hammock Hills Nature Trail at Cape Hatteras National Seashore starts across from the entrance of the Ocracoke Campground. It is a standard nature trail that takes hikers through what is known as hammock: an ecological “island” surrounded by a contrasting environment. Surrounding this section of Ocracoke Island is barren beach, yet somehow a forest and salt marsh have formed in the midst of it.

The trail traverses grass, gravel, and sand and is mainly flat with one small hill to climb. It is a lollypop-shaped trail, not a true loop trail. You hike out on the stick before coming to the loop portion, then hike back on the stick. The only intersection is where the loop starts. Go right, counterclockwise around the trail, as that is the way the trail is meant to be hiked. There are no maps that I am aware of, but none are needed. All you need to do is find the trailhead.

Typical terrain of the Hammock Hills Nature Trail at Cape Hatteras National Seashore

The trail cuts through a maritime forest and to a salt marsh. A side trail leads to an observation deck overlooking the marsh.