Goose Creek State Park is a small park located along the Pamlico Coast of eastern North Carolina between the historic towns of Washington and Bath. The park is rather well developed as far as North Carolina State Parks go, boasting a visitor center, beach, and campground which are comfortably wrapped in a well designed trail system. I'd recently had relatives move nearby so it made sense to make this a stop during my visit.

The trails in the park encompass a wide variety of habitats, from river shoreline to swampy lowlands to mixed pine and hardwood uplands (though uplands is a relative term in this region). I was hoping to make a sweeping loop through the entire park but found out after arriving that the entire western half of the park was effectively wrecked during Hurricane Irene earlier in the year and was off limits to visitors. This meant I'd be restricted to exploring the 3 miles of trails in the eastern half, but as it turned out this wasn't as bad as it first sounded...

Trailhead GPS Coordinates:  35.478317, -76.901446

Route Type:  Loop                           Difficulty:  MODERATE  (Petzoldt Rating:  3.03 )

Hike Length:  3.0 miles                     Hike Duration:  2:00

Trailhead Temp:  55'F                      Trail Traffic:  1-5 people

Min. Elevation: 0'                               Max. Elevation:  10'

Trails Used (blaze color/shape):  Goose Creek (blue triangles), Huckleberry (white circles), Ivey Gut (red triangles), Live Oak (red circles), Mallard Creek Loop (blue circles), Palmetto Boardwalk (unblazed), Tar-Kiln (orange circles)

12-26-2011