Topsail Hill Preserve RV Park

Many fellow campers had referred us to Top Sail State Park over the years and I lucked up and got us reservations for 2 nights.  We pulled over to the side of the road and had lunch on the way to the park because we were too early for check-in.

Everyone had said what a nice park it was and they were right. 

We had heard that Topsail was formerly a private park but was taken over by the state.  It had full hookups, concrete sites, and even cable, something unheard of in a state park.  The sites had lots of shade and privacy. 

The beach was 7/10 mile from the campground.  You could either walk, ride a bike, or ride the shuttle from the campground to the beach that ran every hour during the day.

Once you arrived at the sand dunes, there was a long boardwalk to cross to get to the beach.

After crossing the long boardwalk, you come to some of the whitest beaches and clearest water on the gulf coast.

The beach is not as wide here but it was not too crowded either because only people from the campground were using the beach.

On the bike ride to the beach, it appeared there had been a fire because the tree trunks were black.  We later learned that periodically they would have "controlled burns" to burn out all the undergrowth.

We explored the bike trails and found what we thought was an inlet off the beach.

But when we saw a sign that said "No Swimming -- Beware of Alligators", we determined that it was a freshwater lake.

We sat on the bench for awhile and rested...

and then headed back to camp on our bikes.  I wanted to take some pictures of us biking and Chuck said "Let me take a picture of you.  You're hardly ever in any of the pictures."  He told me to go out in front of him and then ride back and he would take a picture.  This was his first shot:

So I rode back out and then back again for his second shot:

Good shot of the bike trail, but where's my bike?  So we tried it again:

Good picture of the bike trail, me and his fingers.  This is why I take most of the pictures. :)

We decided to have barbecued chicken wings and corn on the cob for dinner.  Yummy!  This is all that was left:

Before we left on Friday, we rode our bikes to the beach one more time and went for a walk. 

Chuck talked to some guys who were fishing and were catching a lot of whitings.

Topsail is a park we would definitely like to come back to next spring and stay longer.