Beyond the beach along Cape Fear

After swimming in the breakers, digging for periwinkles, watching the kids shovel sand, tossing bread to sea gulls, tanning by the pool and topping the day off with a sumptuous seafood dinner, what’s left to do at the beach?

Well, plenty, if you spend a weekend on the Cape Fear Peninsula below Wilmington on North Carolina’s southeastern coast.

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Jack Horan

Author Robert Ruark spent part of his childhood learning to hunt and fish while living at this home, now the Adkins-Ruark B&B.

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Jack Horan

A brown pelican fishes for handouts from anglers on the Kure Beach Fishing Pier, possibly the oldest pier on the Atlantic Coast.

North Carolina travel stories

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• Beyond the beach along Cape Fear 
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For starters: A state park bordering the Cape Fear River; the state’s oldest fishing pier; a Civil War fort that was the last major stronghold of the Confederacy; a two-story state aquarium; a $5 boat cruise on the river via a state ferry; and a historic waterfront town with houses past the century mark.

All can be found in a span of five miles along U.S. 421 from Carolina Beach south to Fort Fisher and then a 30-minute ferry ride to Southport.

Carolina Beach

The chamber of commerce dubs the lower peninsula Pleasure Island because a dredged channel called Snow’s Cut slices through the peninsula. Its hub is Carolina Beach, a family-oriented mix of mom-and-pop motels, beach rental houses and seafood restaurants.

At the municipal marina, charter fishing boats and cruise and deep-sea party fishing boats in the Winner fleet take passengers to the Atlantic (www.winnerboats.com).

Two blocks away, next to the dunes, is Carolina Beach’s Boardwalk, the town’s center in the 1940s and 1950s. The mostly stucco buildings now house restaurants, bars, boogie board and bike rental stores and Britt’s Donut Shop, a fixture since 1939. See www.pleasureislandnc.org.

Escape the beach hurly-burly by walking some of the six miles of trails at Carolina Beach State Park. One goes around a boggy plot of Venus’ flytraps, the insect-eating plant found only within 75 miles of Wilmington. A favorite destination is Sugarloaf Dune, a 3-mile round trip from the parking lot at the river. The 55-foot-high, tree-covered dune overlooks the Cape Fear. Admission to the 761-acre park is free; see www.ncparks.gov.

Kure Beach

A near-continuous palisade of motels and rental houses, many in Easter-egg colors, line the shore of Kure Beach (pronounced CURE-ee).

The town’s most prominent attraction is Kure Beach Fishing Pier, which traces its lineage to 1923 and claims to be the oldest pier on the Atlantic Coast. Non-anglers can walk the 900-foot-long pier for free. Hurricane Hazel destroyed the pier in 1954. It was rebuilt, and rebuilt again in 1996 after Hurricane Bertha. See www.kurebeachfishingpier.com.

Fort Fisher area

Fort Fisher State Historic Site preserves the remnants of a Confederate sand fort that saw a D-Day-type invasion in 1865 and a subsequent battle that helped end the Civil War. The fort kept Union warships at bay so “blockade runner” ships loaded with supplies for the Confederacy could slip in from the Atlantic, across New Inlet (now closed) and up the Cape Fear. Ocean erosion has taken 90 percent of the fort; the remainder consists of grassy mounds with a gun battery stretching from U.S. 421 to the Cape Fear River. A museum details the epic battle. Admission is free; see www.nchistoricsites/fisherfisher.htm.

North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher

A few hundred yards south, at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, the ecological theme is “From the Cape Fear River to the Sea.” Freshwater pools and exhibits hold bluegills and bass, snakes and gators. Saltwater tanks display spiny lobsters, moray eels and, in the 235,000-gallon Cape Fear Shoals tank, a constantly swimming array of groupers, stingrays and sharks, among other fish. When exiting the aquarium in the landscaped area, notice the “hurricane pole” showing the depth of storm surges. Highest mark: 17 feet for Hazel. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, $6 for children 6-17, those 5 and under are free. See www.ncaquariums.com.

Fort Fisher-Southport ferry

A half-mile beyond the aquarium is the Fort Fisher-Southport ferry landing. The $5-a-car, one-way fare is worth more than that in sightseeing value. State-owned ferries regularly cross the Cape Fear to Southport and vice-versa.

Passengers can pick out Old Baldy, the octagon-tower lighthouse on Bald Head Island to the southeast. See www.ncdot.org/transit/ferry.

Southport

Stroll the walkway along the waterfront or take a self-guided tour of historic Southport under a canopy of live oaks.

Among the points of interest is the Adkins-Ruark House, where Wilmington native and author Robert Ruark (1915-1965) spent part of his childhood with his grandfather learning to hunt and fish. Ruark’s coming-of-age recollections were published in his 1957 book, “The Old Man and the Boy.” The house is now a bed-and-breakfast (www.robertruarkinn.com).

Other historic sites are the Walker-Pyke House (ca. 1800), Southport’s oldest surviving house; River Pilot’s Tower (early 1940s); and Old Smithville Burying Ground, an 18th-century cemetery for families, ship captains and river pilots. An obelisk marker honors lost pilots: “The winds and the sea sing their requiem and shall forever more.” See www.southport-nc.com.