A Stormy Vacation - and the Beloved Wild Horses of Corolla

My husband and I have been vacationing at the Outer Banks of North Carolina for nearly 20 years.

We always come in May to avoid the crowds and began staying up in the 4x4 area, where there are no paved roads and you need a four-wheel drive to access your home, since 2009. We love its wild, rustic beauty and watching the wild horses of Corolla, which have been safely tucked away here since 1995, from our oceanfront deck perch. The weather is usually warm and sunny that time of year, which gives us an early taste of summer.

   I first came to the Outer Banks since I was a child, though we stayed further south in Nags Head back then. My father and I returned in 1995, a few months after my mother died, but stayed in Corolla this time. Back then the wild horses were still allowed to roam among the populace so I was thrilled to see them in our yard one night. I didn’t know much about them at the time, but found them enchanting, especially because you just never knew when they’d show up. Until 1985, the paved roads only took you to Duck, 17 miles south of Corolla, so there wasn’t much vehicle traffic in Corolla itself, which made their freedom possible. But progress has its price. Over the next ten years, 20 of the horses were hit by cars. Not long after my father and I left, the horses were moved northward to the 4 x 4 area, which was subsequently fenced off. They’ve roamed the 7,544 acres ever since.

  I didn’t realize the horses had moved until my husband and I returned in 2003, this time to stay in Duck with some of my family. I was grateful they were safe, but sad that so many had died and been injured due to careless humans. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund does an incredible job protecting them, whether it’s repeatedly warning people to NOT FEED THEM (apples and carrots can kill them) and to stay 50 feet away from them, something that isn’t so easy when summer hits and the vacationers flood the beaches in their vehicles.

   In fact, the horses are the main reason we decided to rent a house in the 4 x 4 area. Once there, we fell in love all over again with the Outer Banks. This part just called to us. We chose a house you had to drive ten miles on the beach to get to, literally the last house in North Carolina at the time (it’s now the second to last), which is just a stone’s throw away from the Virginia border. And it was dog friendly, as is so much of the Outer Banks. Our dogs are our family and we hate to vacation without them.

Cooper, our golden retriever, keeps an eye on a wild horse in our yard.

  We’ve had times we’ve stayed there when it’s been cloudy for days on end, but this last time we went, the week of May 7, 2022, when a powerful nor’easter took hold and stayed for five days, was like nothing we’d ever experienced before. In fact, we purposely avoided coming in the fall, when we know the weather is especially warm and beautiful, because we didn’t want to be evacuated if a hurricane hit. We never even thought about a nor’easter because, as locals told us earlier this month, they usually happen in the winter. But this storm gave us an even greater respect for the people that choose to live in the 4 x 4 area full-time. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Nothing is more representative of the fighting, fierce spirit of these residents than The Laughing Gull, the first house you see when you drive on the 4 x 4 beach. It’s an icon of sorts in that part of the Outer Banks. It juts out into the ocean as if daring the waves to bring it down. On the same week the nor’easter pulled two houses into the Atlantic in Rodanthe, which is about 70 miles south of where we were staying, The Laughing Gull was still standing, as defiant as ever.

I’m not even sure why I’m writing this but watching the nonchalant way the locals handled the fierce, blowing winds and surging tides of this nor’easter just made me admire them all the more. Life isn’t exactly easy there. I’m not saying it’s as difficult as, say, living in Alaska, but when we tell people there are no paved roads and travel by beach is the only way to get into town (the unpaved roads won’t take you there) you should see the looks we get. Most people can’t conceive of not being able to just run to the store whenever they feel like it. That’s simply not possible there. You have to keep an eye on the tide schedule because getting around The Laughing Gull and the houses right before during high tide is no easy feat, and avoid driving at night if you can, especially if it’s high tide.

Amazon, UPS, Federal Express or even the U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver to homes in the 4 x 4 area. You can only go 15 m.p.h. on the beach so a ten-mile ride can takes about 30 minutes. Power outages aren’t uncommon. The roads are bumpy and don’t even take you to town. They won’t even take you from the beginning of the 4x 4 area to the end. They just abruptly end, then pick back up again. Over and over. There are some road signs, but not enough where we’d feel comfortable driving around without some guidance.

We’d heard you could get stranded during a storm up where we stay but had never experienced it until this last trip. The nor’easter churned up 50 m.ph. winds; the ocean was so wild and angry we didn’t let our golden retriever, Cooper, do his usual tennis ball chasing/swimming in the waves, even after it was over. The first day of the storm a policeman guarded the entrance to the 4 x 4 beach, only allowing experienced drivers to venture onto it. When we were told it was safe, we headed into town to get some more food right after low tide began. It was dicey, but we got there. However, the following day, we couldn’t even get to The Laughing Gull and had to turn back because the force of the storm made low tide like high tide.

The nor’easter also meant we didn’t get to see much of the wild horses I love so much. I’m not even close to what you’d call a horse person (I’ve ridden a horse once and got thrown off), but I never tire of seeing these horses, even after going there for so many years. They stayed back in the woods for the five days the nor’easter hung around, that is until some of them escaped. The storms were so fierce the water was sucked out of the sound, making it possible for them to walk across the sound and stroll the streets of Corolla once again, as they and their ancestors did for so many years. Thankfully, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund was able to get them back home the same day they posted about the escape on their social media.

So it wasn’t our normal vacation there, not by any means. What I discovered is it’s easy to love the place when the weather is on its best behavior and you get day after day of sunshine and warm temperatures, but being there during a nor’easter truly gave me a new appreciation for that part of the country and those who choose to live there. And for the horses, who have braved the inclimate weather for hundreds of years. We’ve talked about living there one day, but for now I’m just grateful we get to visit. Even when it’s cold and wet and bleak, it’s still a magical place.