Welcome to Jockey's Ridge State Park.
This cache requires more than just a visit to the top of the dunes. You *must* answer questions about your visit as outlined in the cache description. Failure to do so will lead to your find being deleted.
Jockey’s Ridge is the tallest natural sand dune system in the Eastern United States. Here at Jockeys Ridge State Park you can experience the world of the desert. Shifting sands, high winds, extreme temperatures, and a lack of water make the park resemble barren environments such as the Sahara Desert. You can also explore the estuarine environment along the Roanoke Sound which is a rich habitat for a variety of plant and animal life.
This park is a great place for hang gliding (they even have a hang gliding school on site!), flying a kite, or even throwing a boomerang. Be careful and protect yourself because this is very similar to a desert and the sand can get mighty hot!
The Lesson
Sand dunes along the Eastern United States are made up of rocks that once made up mountains but over millions of years have been transported by rivers and streams to the ocean. These rocks tumble and break apart into smaller and smaller pieces until they are small granules of sand. Some of this sediment stays in the ocean while some gets washed back on shore creating the sandy beaches along the coast. Wind then picks up the fine-grained sand and carries it or pushes it into the dunes we can see today.
It is believed that Jockeys Ridge was likely created roughly 7,000 years ago. Through a process called saltation, the sand was carried by a fluid (water or air) from the surface of one area before being deposited upon a new surface.
The types of sand propagation.
The composition of the sand is the same as the mountains they come from. Feldspar, mica, magnetite, quartz, and granite (an igneous rock that is made up of quartz, feldspar, and mica). The majority, roughly 90%, of the sand seen at Jockeys Ridge is made up of quartz.
The dunes, themselves, are started, and maintained, by something stopping the granules from moving. This can be water or vegetation. Plants like American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata), sea oats (Uniola paniculata), bitter panicum (Panicum amarum), and saltmeadow cordgrass (Sporobolus pumilus) help stabilize dunes by slowing the wind, trapping sand, and anchoring it with their long roots. Without this layer of vegetative protection the dunes would simply blow away!
This sand dune system isn’t subject to the same type of erosion that plague the other sand dunes in this area. Besides the vegetation, ground water is wicked up into the dune which helps maintain the core of the dune. The seasonal prevailing winds also help the dune by blowing from different directions during the summer (southwest) and winter (northeast).
The dune does migrate a bit each year. A hotel built at the foot of the dune in the late 1800s was swallowed up a few years after it opened. The three-story building was seen a few years after it had been covered but was quickly lost again. More recently, a miniature golf course was covered in the 1970s but took until the mid-1980s for the larger structures to be lost to the migrating sand.
The Mission
The tallest sand dune is nearly four-stories tall and provides a very scenic view of the area. But how were these dunes created, what are they made of, and why have they stuck around? Your mission is to find the answers to the following questions:
- How do American beachgrass, sea oats (Uniola paniculata), bitter pancium, and saltmeadow cordgrass help the dunes?
- What types of vegetation did you see along your journey?
- What minerals make up the sand along the Outer Banks made of?
- What mineral makes up the majority of the sand found along the Outer Banks?
- Jockey's Ridge is made of the tumbled rocks that once were ancient mountains. Briefly explain how the mountains have turned into the sand dunes you find along the Outer Banks.
Once you have found the answers to these questions, head out to the dune and find the tallest peak. You'll need to obtain the coordinates of the tallest peak. Also, take a photo of yourself, or a personal object, when at the top.
Logging Requirements
When logging the find, please include the coordinates for the where you feel the peak of the tallest dune is and the distance and direction from the previous finder. Please include your picture(s) as well as any other cool information you learned from your visit.
Do not provide any answers, other than your coordinates at the peak, distance from the previous finder, and photo(s) from the top, in your log.
Hours of operation
Jockeys Ridge State Park is open year round during the following hours:
- January through February - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- March through April - 8 a.m. to 8 p.m
- May through September - 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- October - 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- November through December - 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Closed Christmas day (December 25th).
The Visitor Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.