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Masonboro Island Reserve Eight miles of beach and salt marsh With more than eight miles of undisturbed beach, dune and marsh, Masonboro Island is a crown jewel among the region's natural areas. It provides an up-close look at the natural interaction of sand, waves and wind, and a soul-soothing solitude, within a few minutes' boat ride of Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach or Carolina Beach. Mostly state owned after a preservation campaign in the 1980s, the island is a National Estuarine Research Reserve, overseen by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. It is a nesting site for threatened loggerhead and green sea turtles, as well as several threatened species of sea birds: black skimmers, Wilson's plovers and least terns. The rich waters of Masonboro Sound, between the island and the Wilmington mainland, are nursery areas for such food fish as spot, mullet, summer flounder, pompano and bluefish. The island also clearly shows the impact of the hurricanes of the 1990s, and how a natural barrier island is responding to those changes. In many places, broad fans of sand show where storm waves washed all the way over the island, depositing sand in the soundside marshes. Beach grasses and other hardy plants have begun to colonize these washovers, catching blown sand and starting the re-growth of dunes. Stark, bleached ghosts of maritime forest trees killed by inundation in salt water stand in many places, but new growth is already starting in their shadows. Masonboro is a paradise for shell hunters, fishermen, and surfers. Primitive camping is permitted on the island, except in the front dunes. Bring plenty of water, sunscreen and insect repellent and take home all your trash. |
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To get there: Masonboro Island is accessible only by boat.
From the public boat ramp or marinas at Wrightsville Beach, follow Banks Channel south.
Cross Masonboro Inlet. Masonboro Island is just across the inlet from the Wrightsville
Beach Coast Guard station. A popular landing spot is a cove known as the "hitching post"
where boats gather on summer days. A well-marked path leads to the beach. From the public ramp or marinas at Carolina Beach, follow the waterway north. Turn right at green channel marker 155 into Carolina Beach Inlet. Masonboro Island is on the left. Canoeists, kayakers or experienced small-boat skippers, with good charts and accurate tide tables, can explore the many tidal creeks that give access to the back of the island. |
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