Fort Macon State Park: A Beach with Some BOOM!

Fort Macon State Park is a great beach with surprises around every corner. Though you may want to sit back and relax at most beaches, Fort Macon State Park will have you stretching your legs to discover all the hidden delights.

I Thought We Were Going to the Beach?!

Well you are! Fort Macon State Park is a located on the East end of Bogue Banks Island. In order to get there you will have to drive through Atlantic Beach. Parking will get tight during the warm months like every other beach. That being said, there is a lot of parking and I have been able to find a parking spot every time I have gone. I would not recommend trying to leave and come back during summer. Try to bring everything with you when you arrive the first time.

There are two parking areas. The Eastern one will be the first one you come to and this area fills up fast. They do put up a sign to let you know if it is full at least. This is where the bathhouse access is. The other parking area is the primary parking area for the fort itself and the jetty. Both areas are fairly large in terms of beach parking.

Fort Macon State park was not the first place I thought of when I hear “beach”. Needless to say, I was surprised when I found it not only had a beach but a lot of great beach amenities too. The key land mark you need to know about is the Rock jetty. This is a man made line of boulders that juts out into the water a ways. To the East of the jetty, there is no swimming allowed for safety concerns. To the West of the jetty, swimming is OK.

The Bathhouse Area Beach

This area is the first parking area you come to. I thought “bathhouse” sounded a little odd but It is basically a set of full locker rooms and other amenities. The beach area here is solid with fair traffic which is what I have come to expect from Bogue Banks Island. The bathhouse provides some extra amenities you did not know you needed. First off, it is fully wheelchair accessible. Not just getting to the bath house but the bathhouse offers beach wheelchairs. You can take these fat-tire lawn chairs on the beach and really get to experience the beach. Most Beaches have ramps etc. but I have never seen so much dedication to helping people with accessibility issues get their toes in the sand. Needless to say, I am impressed.

The bathrooms are well maintained and they also have a family bathroom. Madilyn and I used this multiple times during our visit. The Feet washing area and the showers are adequate. There is a beach access front the bath house and then there are some secondary access paths that come directly from the parking lot. They have several shelters for picnic/cookouts here too. I did not think about how much a fun idea a cookout in this area could be until I saw some people doing it. There is also a concession stand here. It was closed when I visited but I imagine it is standard concession fair. Comment below if you know what the menu looks like.

The Beach area is on par with the rest of Bogue Banks (Pine Knoll Shores and others). The beach itself has a fair slope to the water. This makes for great transition space for younger kids to play in without much risk. I like this because you can get your feet wet without worrying about getting soaked. Madilyn was not very interested because of the loud sound of the waves. As the months get warmer, I think she will come around. Fishermen also seem to love the area also. Parts of the beach were crowded by fishing lines in the water. But it did not keep us from having a good time.

The Traffic to this beach is limited by the parking. Even in the peak season, the beach has plenty of room to spread out and enjoy. The nearest private beach area is about a half mile down the road.

There is a trail set that runs from this area to the fort parking area (see park map). I am glad they have these trails and I can see them being very nice for locals. If parking is a really tight when you visit and you want to go see the fort, you can use these trails rather than walk on the road. These paths are not paved but well packed down

The Beach Around The Fort

The visitor center, the fort and the other beach area all share the same parking area at the end of the road. The beach area runs from the sound side of the island all the way to the ocean side out towards where the bathhouse area is.

Make sure you pay attention to where the “No Swimming” signs are. These are no joke and the park rangers will come around that tell people to get out of the water if they are not following these rules. Sad part about this is the “no swimming” area includes the sound side of the beach with gentle waves perfect for kids. I did find some neat tide pool area near the rock jetty. These were probably Madilyn favorite thing the whole time we were there. I will probably start looking for more tide pools for future beach trips. This made for a fun experience for sure and was one of my favorite parts that day.

Oh and that brings up the Jetty. The rock jetty is in this area. Just past the jetty into the swim area, the beach gets very deep. The sheer amount of sand is both impressive but odd. I was hoping that we would find something cool in this area but it was literally just sand. Great again for spreading out during peak season.

During the fist time we visited, we stayed in this area and saw a man walking his goat. Yes a goat on the beach. The park claims to be dog friendly (except in the fort area and visitor center) but this was a little odd. Kaitlyn loved it and probably remembers it more vividly than most other beaches because of it. They did clean up after themselves and the goat behaved well on its leash so hard to argue with it.

Historical Fort

The fort is quite impressive. The pictures do not do it justice. This centuries old earth works feel huge in real life. Fair warning, there are no railings anywhere so keep small kids close. The park has done a great job of preserving the fort and capturing the history that goes with it.

You will likely see the fort as you come into the parking lot. From the parking area, I recommend heading by the visitor center first. Decent bathrooms, gift shop and a few exhibits are nice to walk through. If you want to, you can just cut through the picnic area and get to the fort. There is a cannon on display on the walk that you can stare at and examine. But that is just a taste.

When you crest the entrance to the fort, you will stare down into the fort’s main entrance. The Outer walls and drop behind them make the inner walls appear massive in scale. This fort was constructed in the 1860’s and was a part of a single civil war battle. You can read all about the battle and fort’s construction while you are there. If you are less of history buff, worry not. It is still just fun to walk through.

Welcome to the 1860’s

The massive front gate appear to be solid wood and hand hewn. The brick work and much of the exterior is either amazingly preserved or restored impeccably. I can not tell which. The interior continues the early American feel. There are mock storerooms filled with fake supplies, massive furnace in the center yard, and renovated entrances to different rooms. These rooms each hold unique and specific exhibits about a certain topic.

I personally gravitated to the walls. You walk up there very steep metal stairs to get to the interior walls. Again no railing on the walls so watch your step. The interior walls have the majority of the cannons on site. When we visited the second time, the fort had just started to begin firing these cannons for demonstration regularly. Pre-COVID, they did this religiously. I believe they are returning to that tradition and I love it.

Live Fire Cannon

When they fire the cannon, every park ranger is out there corralling visitors to make sure everyone is safe. They are just firing black powder but it is still a nice “boom”. On days the park is firing the cannon, you should see a sign on the road that says “Cannon Firing Today”. Ask the visitor center front desk what time if you can not find it posted online.

I was corralled a few different times during the preparation for firing. It seemed like the staff may have been some confused regarding what area people could or could not be but they worked it out. This is likely from over 2 years of not going through these motions and will probably clear up with repetition. I am glad they took their time to get everyone safe even if it delayed the process a little.

There was also a WW2 artillery battery located at the fort for coastal defense. They Preserved this in small tribute also.

Fort Macon State Park conducts re-enactments if you are interested in that. I imagine it is quite the site.

Overall

Fort Macon State Park is a great place to relax with top notch beaches and a little bit of history. This adventure moves at your pace and continues to surprise. We look forward to returning to Fort Macon for future beach trips and believe you will too.

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