If you have the chance to knock something off your bucket list, jump at the chance. While at the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a ‘Working Holiday’, we had some time available to visit the wild horses at Corolla Beach. This experience was far better than ever expected, largely because we took our own car out on the beach – and could stay with the horses for a lot longer than any of the tour groups. It is a 4WD only beach, so make sure you deflate your tires accordingly.
The first part of any trip is finding a great place to stay. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn at Kitty Hawk, which was a fantastic location on the beach, and an awesome base for exploring the Outer Banks.
To find the horses, we travelled one hour North of Kitty Hawk to Corolla beach. Once there we had to deflate our tires to drive on the 4WD beach, and drove north for about 10 minutes to Penny’s Hill (tip, it’s where the beach narrowed) – and this is where we encountered the wild horses. We immediately stopped – and were treated to a two hour ‘show’ (tip, take beach chairs so you can be comfortable while enjoying the horses). While you are strictly prohibited from feeding the horses or going any closer than 50ft, we had several who walked up to about 25ft from us – so we didn’t move until they lost interest. Of note, you absolutely should NOT feed the horses … they are wild and free.
Watching the small herds walk along the beach, with the waves gently breaking in the background, was mesmerizing. They stood around a lot as well, which allowed plenty of time for photos.
The foal was so cute, and the mare seemed to pay ample attention to her offspring.
Once or twice it was like they were lining up for a photo. Most of the time they simply ignored us and appeared to be enjoying a trip to the beach.
We got to see two small herds, each led by a stallion. This short video is when the boys were getting a bit ‘stroppy’ with each other, but the girls weren’t too impressed.
After an amazing afternoon, we headed back to Corolla – and an amazing meal at the Corolla Cantina.
Dad’s Recommendation: It’s definitely worth the effort to visit Corolla Beach and look for the wild horses. Take your time, enjoy the moment and don’t rush!
Travel Tip: If you want to see the horses, but don’t have an 4 wheel vehicle, look into a Tour. We recommend Wild Horse Adventure Tours. While we didn’t take a tour with them, they appeared like a great group. A friend of ours recently took a tour with them and enjoyed it. Wild Horse’s is a Trip advisor winner!
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