Nags Head Woods Preserve

Best Time to Visit Nags Head Woods Preserve

Nags Head Woods Preserve is a wooded, wetland-adjacent environment, and insects can be active in the swampy sections during warmer months. If that's a concern for you, factor it into when you visit and what you bring.

Tips for Visiting Nags Head Woods Preserve

• Trails wind through the forest and along the dune ridges.
• Expect a shaded, level-to-rolling walk.
• Call ahead or check the preserve's website for current trail access and hours before you visit.

Getting to Nags Head Woods Preserve

Nags Head Woods Preserve sits on the western, soundside edge of Kill Devil Hills, just a few minutes off the main Beach Road corridor. Plan for a short detour off that main corridor to reach the preserve entrance.

What to Expect at Nags Head Woods Preserve

Nags Head Woods Preserve protects one of the last substantial maritime forests remaining on the mid-Atlantic coast — a stand of ancient, wind-sculpted trees rooted in dune ridges that have been building here for centuries. Where the rest of the surrounding beach towns are open sand, dune grass, and ocean views, this preserve is a world away in feel: a genuinely different ecosystem worth visiting for the contrast alone. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages the land, keeping it open to the public as both a working conservation site and a trail network.

The defining feature is the terrain itself: forested dune ridges running parallel to the sound, with low, swampy hollows between them that hold water for much of the year. That combination of old dunes, freshwater wetlands, and a canopy of oak, holly, and loblolly pine supports plant and animal communities that don't exist anywhere else on this stretch of the Outer Banks, including species more typical of forests much farther inland.