This Land, Your Land

Goose Creek State Park's group campsite, below, is closed until further notice as a well serving the site is replaced by county water lines, Park Superintendent John Fullwood said yesterday.

The state parks website has a simple alert saying the group campground, which is usually open from mid-March through late November, is closed until further notice.

Fullwood said the last quarterly test sample from the site's well came back positive for bacteria. "We are working to run county water to this area of the park to supply a safe water source, and hopefully it will be completed by early June," he said in an email.

The walk-in group site accommodates up to 30 people. Parking and flush toilets are across the street. Goose Creek also has 19 walk-in primitive camping sites for tents.

Goose Creek State Park is about 10 miles east of Washington off of U.S. 264 in Beaufort County.

Group camping at Goose Creek State Park is suspended while a waterline is put in place.

Goose Creek State Park has reopened on its regular fall schedule of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the state Division of Parks and Recreation said on the park's website this morning. Campgrounds and some trails remain closed due to unsafe conditions caused by Hurricane Irene.

Farther south, the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail reports that extensive storm damage in the Croatan National Forest will likely mean the Neusiok Trail remains closed until next spring.

We've previously reported the National Forest alert that says only three recreation sites in the Croatan have reopened since the late-August hurricane, and about numerous downed trees in the campground at Goose Creek.

The FMST says in an email sent yesterday that "boardwalk, bridges and hundreds of trees were uprooted" along the 20-mile Neusiok, which is Section 36 of the MST.

"The damage is extensive enough that FMST volunteers are estimating that the trail may not reopen until next spring," the group says on its website.

The storm also caused breaches in five places in Section 38 of the MST, the Outer Banks from Ocracoke to Jockey's Ridge State Park. Temporary bridges over the breaches are expected to be in place by early October.

Dimsal Swamp State Park has apparenlty re-opened for the first time since Hurricane Irene hit, but Goose Creek State Park remains closed.

The state parks website has removed its post-Irene alert about closed parks, and there is no word of closing or re-opening on the Dismal Swamp park page. The Goose Creek page says "closed due to unsafe conditions in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene; but, Dinah's Landing is open."

Scroll down (or click here) for a YouTube video that shows fallen trees at Goose Creek's campground.

Dismal Swamp State Park is off of U.S. 17 north of South Mills in Camden County.

Then N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation is reporting "near-record attendance" in 2010 at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas.

Total visits came to 14 million, slightly less that the all-time record of 14.2 million visits in 2009, a news release says. Twenty-one state parks or recreation areas out of 39 in the system reported an increase in visits in 2010.

Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.47 million visits, an increase of 3 percent over last year.

Mayo River State Park in Rockingham County opened to the public in April, and attracted 36,772 visitors during the year.

Parks with significant increases in visitation included Hanging Rock State Park in Stokes County (38 percent), New River State Park in Ashe and Alleghany counties (31 percent), Goose Creek State Park in Beaufort County (29) percent and Pettigrew State Park in Washington and Tyrell counties (26 percent).

More than a half million people were registered to camp in state parks during the year.