Some good information to have when coming to the Outer Banks.
On Saturdays and Sundays there is no left turn from US 158 onto Dogwood in Southern Shores.
For our regular Outer Banks visitors, that makes sense; for anyone who is visiting for the first time or doesn’t make an annual or may semi-annual trip the area, that may seem a little confusing.
Here’s what that’s about.
Most traffic crosses the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge when arriving on the Outer Banks. At the second light after the bridge, the road to the right is called the Woods Road and it leads into Kitty Hawk.
A left hand turn will take drivers into Southern Shores on Dogwood Trail.
For drivers planning on heading north to Duck or Corolla, Dogwood Trail is the preferred GPS route. Except Dogwood Trail is a purely residential street that meanders through a residential area. It was never designed for heavy traffic and cannot handle the volume of cars that uses that route if the left turn is allowed.
So Southern Shores, with the cooperation of NCDOT, has put up barricades at the intersection preventing drivers from turning left.
It’s not clear if any time at all is saved by cutting through Southern Shores anyway. If the turn is not made the route continues to the intersection fo NC 12 and US 158. NC 12 is the main—actually only—route north. Outer Banks weekend traffic in the summer is a slow moving affair no matter what, but NC 12 is the more direct route, with some traffic lights but no stop signs and no possibility of getting lost.
Slight correction…anything is possible, but since NC 12 is the only highway on the Outer Banks from Southern Shores to Corolla, it’s hard to imagine getting lost on the road.
It can take a little patience in traffic to get here, but once on the Outer Banks your Brindley Beach Vacation home is the place to be.
