We love visiting our North Carolina State Parks for many reasons. One is we get to explore some of the surrounding towns. North Carolina has so many wonderful and unique places and when you are on a trek to visit all of the state parks you end up seeing a lot of them. We recently went to Goose Creek State Park on the Pamlico Sound. Because it is located in between the historic towns of Bath and Washington, we decided to make a day trip out of it. Check out what we did on our fun day trip down east!

Little Washington

Washington, North Carolina is a beautiful little waterfront town located where the Tar River becomes the Pamlico River before it empties into the Pamlico Sound. Washington was founded in 1776 and is the first town in America named after George Washington. To distinguish it from Washington, D.C. locals refer to it as Little Washington. We have been to Little Washington a couple of times before and we were excited to visit again. We rolled into the town mid-morning and had a great time exploring before we headed over to Goose Creek. Here is what you should do when you are in the town often referred to as the Heart of the Inner Banks.

Stroll Along the Waterfront

The waterfront of Washington is a perfect place for a leisurely stroll to unwind. The waterfront is home to the North Carolina Estuarium (more on that in a bit), a great boardwalk, a children’s park, and plenty of places for boats to slip in and out of. You can see fishermen taking off or coming in with their catch, which Silas loved. Little Washington has a bunch of festivals throughout the year at the waterfront as well.

Visit the North Carolina Estuarium

Estuarium? We didn’t know that was a thing either until we saw this one. The North Carolina Estuarium is the first estuarium in the world. An estuarium is basically an aquarium that specifically looks at estuaries and coastal rivers. This estuarium houses over 200 exhibits and focuses on water life in and around the Pamlico Sound.

The estuarium is a pretty interactive experience. You walk through different rooms and learn about the importance of estuaries to the environment. There are plenty of aquariums with crabs and other water life. There is a pretty great search and find that kept Silas looking around at everything. The highlight of the visit was the incredible artwork in the main lobby. It is a beautiful piece depicting the water cycle in North Carolina. Make sure you ask the wonderful people behind the front desk for a demonstration – this art is more than it first appears to be.

The North Carolina Estuarium is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm, so make sure you plan accordingly if you want to visit. Also, they do not allow pictures inside, not sure why, but that is the reason we only have pictures from the outside to share.

Grab a Bite in a Historic Building

Downtown Little Washington is really pretty. The main reason for that is because the town has done a great job restoring many of the buildings from the 1800s and early 1900s. Downtown Little Washington has plenty to offer and is a great place for some window shopping and for taking a step back in time. There are plenty of great places to eat there too.

On this trip we ate lunch at The Meeting Place Cafe on W. Main Street. This restaurant is in what was once a car dealership. You can still see the car lifts in the back where they worked on them. The building is open and beautiful. You can sit inside or outside looking at the water. They have really reasonable prices and a great lunch menu. Megan got the chicken salad croissant with a side of broccoli salad (that’s a lot of “salad”). She loved the broccoli salad. I got the Italian sandwich (it was ok) and the pasta salad. Megan loved my pasta salad because it was creamy. I didn’t because I am anti-mayonnaise. Overall though we loved our experience there.

Get Some Dessert at Rachel K’s

Rachel K’s Bakery is located on Market St in a renovated building built in 1884 which once was Washington’s town hall. All of the food there is made from scratch onsite and everything we had was delicious! We went there on the beginning of our journey home to grab a cup of coffee and a dessert for the ride. There were so many options to choose from and we wanted to try it all – another reason to go back I guess. We got a piece of chocolate chess pie and a cinnamon roll. I love a good chocolate pie, and this one was one of the best I ever had. Just the right amount of sweetness. The cinnamon roll was super good too.

This is a great place to go and visit with a really relaxed feel. They have a great seating area outside on the street where you can just sit and watch the world go by. We didn’t try any of the lunch options, but they have a good looking lunch menu as well.

Goose Creek State Park

The main reason we headed this way was to check out Goose Creek State Park as part of our epic quest to visit every North Carolina State Park. Goose Creek celebrates the natural areas around the Pamlico Sound. As mentioned earlier, it is right in between Little Washington and Bath. The park has a lot to offer for those looking for some solitude.

Goose Creek has 8 miles of trails. They wind through marsh areas, along the sound, and into cypress covered swamps. All of the trails are easy because of the level of the land on the coast. One of the cool things about the trails is that most of them have some great boardwalks to keep your feet dry. We loved walking on the Palmetto Boardwalk Trail. We saw a ton of wildlife including a deer that we had a staring contest with (we won). You are in some swampy areas so make sure you pack some bug spray – especially if you go there during the summer like we did.

The park has a great visitor center with some pretty cool exhibits. If you are into boating, kayaking, or canoeing Goose Creek has a bunch of places for you to launch into the water. Another thing that Goose Creek offers is a primitive campsite. Make sure you check with the park in advance if you want to stay the night in a tent. This was not a park that we would want to spend the whole day at unless we were camping or boating, but it was one that went perfectly with the day we had planned.

If you are interested in other North Carolina State Parks check out our guides to South Mountains and Mayo River.

Bath

Bath is the oldest town in North Carolina. It was established in 1705 and is a great place to visit if you are in the area. Today there are only around 250 year round residents, but there is plenty of boating and history to enjoy here. It has some incredible views of the Pamlico River and a nice public area to sit and enjoy it. Bath is probably most famous for at one time being the home of Edward Teach, otherwise known as the notorious pirate Blackbeard (though maybe he wasn’t that bad). Blackbeard settled in Bath after receiving a pardon for his crimes. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay out of the game too long and went back to pirating. He was killed off of Ocracoke soon after he got back in it.

There are a ton of beautiful buildings in Bath that you can tour, just make sure you check out when they are available to enter. A highlight is St. Thomas Episcopal Church which was established in 1734. St. Thomas Church is the oldest church building in all of North Carolina and services are still held there weekly.

Whirligigs

This is a bonus for those traveling from Central or Western North Carolina. In between Goose Creek State Park and our home is the town of Wilson. Wilson is home to one of the most interesting parks you will ever come across on any road trip – The Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. It is located in downtown Wilson on Goldsboro St. A Whirligig is the name that Simpson gave to his massive kinetic artwork he created out of farm machinery over the years. When we say massive we mean massive – some are over 50 feet tall and just as wide. There was a grassroots effort among the people of Wilson to build this park after Simpson’s death in 2013. The park was the spark that Wilson needed to transform its downtown and they are well on their way.

If you have some time, even for a quick stop, make sure you take a break and enjoy this park. By the time the park is completed there will be over 50 Whirligigs there.

We had a great time on our trip down east. This day turned into a pretty epic day trip. You probably could turn this into a weekend trip and spend some more time at each of these locations, but it was just what we needed to get away for the day. Have you ever been to this part of North Carolina? What are some places we need to check out next time?

If you want more ideas on visiting the Inner Banks of North Carolina check out our day trip plan for Edenton.