I didn’t know it at the time, but my move to Hampstead, in addition to being close to the beach, offered easy access to what has become my favorite area of exploration, Holly Shelter Wildlife Management Area, a 68,000+ acre state game land. Off-season it’s a nature-lover’s paradise.

A network of sandy roads offer access to the interior: dry sandy soils of xeric turkey oak/wiregrass savannah, grasslands and wetland bogs. “Pocosin” refers to the special type of bog between sand dunes. The nearby NE Cape Fear River, Shelter Creek and Ashes Creek contribute to the floodplain which washes over or seeps through the soil. Many rare plants find homes here, especially the Carolina Grass of Parnassus, a bog plant common to the mountains, considered rare, endangered and threatened on the coastal plain.