BOOK 



MARKET 



Guided Tours 

 of the Coast 



Where to Go, What to See 

 and How to Get There 



w 



By Daun Daemon 



here are the 

 least crowded beaches in North 

 Carolina? The most fun and 

 educational coastal activities for 

 the kids? Places that satisfy a 

 craving for culture or history? In 

 this issue, Coastwatch rounds up 

 a handful of guidebooks that will 

 help you discover — or redis- 

 cover — the North Carolina 

 coast's hot spots and hidden 

 treasures. 



• North Carolina 

 Beaches: A Visit to National 

 Seashores, State Parks, 

 Ferries, Public Beaches, 

 Wildlife Refuges, Historic 

 Sites, Lighthouses, Boat 

 Ramps and Docks, Muse- 

 ums and More by Glenn 

 Morris. Revised and updated 

 edition. 1998. The University of 

 North Carolina Press, P.O. Box 2288, 

 Chapel Hill, NC 27515. 294 pages. 

 Paperback, $17.95. ISBN 0-80784683-X. 



For an all-purpose guide to the 

 North Carolina coast, you can't beat 

 Morris' book. He visits all of the places 

 mentioned in the subtitle, writing about 

 them in refreshing detail and with an eye 

 to local color. Many good fact-filled 



J3LennMorcis 



North Carolina 



guidebooks are dry, but they accomplish 

 the goal of getting readers where they 

 need to go. Morris does so much more. 



He tells you how to gain access to 

 the beach, a simple-enough task. But he 

 seems compelled to make you under- 

 stand the places, appreciate their history 

 and natural splendor, know their people 

 and feel a part of the forces that shaped 



the North Carolina coast's unique 

 environments. 



Morris begins the guide with 

 a history lesson: how the coastal 

 geography was formed and the 

 land eventually settled. He quickly 

 moves to giving a crash course on 

 beach access, explaining that the 

 heart of the problem is limi ted 

 parking. From there, he travels 

 down the coast county by county 

 and through the two national 

 seashores, beginning each chapter 

 with an overview. For each 

 location, he provides general 

 information and handicapped 

 access information, if available. 

 When applicable, he indicates 

 regional access sites, local access 

 sites, dune crossovers and 

 unimproved access areas. 



While these detailed explana- 

 tions of access, services and 

 recreational offerings are useful and 

 well presented, the real joy of this book 

 is all the extras Morris provides. His 

 gifts include illuminating tidbits that 

 indicate the character of a place. Of 

 Harkers Island, he writes that it "stands 

 alone, a village that is off the beaten 

 track. You must aim to go there since it 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 27 



