A wild Spanish Mustang grazes - Back Country Safari Tours

Along the northern stretches of the Outer Banks lives a relic of a time long since past on these barrier islands. With an ancestry tracing back to the very fist days of European exploration in North America, the legendary Corolla wild horses still roam our beaches, dune fields, and maritime forest as they have for hundreds of years.

The elemental forces that sculpt these islands that we love so much, are the same forces that have created a breed of horse unlike any other in the world. Wind, waves, storms, sand, and salt have coalesced into sculpting this truly remarkable breed known officially as the Banker horse – banker, as in the Outer Banks.

For over 20 years, Back Country Safari Tours has been providing the world an opportunity to view these wild horses on their own terms. Melding together a one-of-a-kind experience of both high energy, off-road adventure through the back country with top-notch professional naturalists and guides, our wild horse safari cannot be beat. One of the great things about being a company with a long-standing history working in this area is our access to large tracks of both private and public preserves that remain off limits to other tour companies in the area. As a partner of the private Spanish Mustang Preserve and with our unique partnerships with large landowners, we have helped to create and conserve a network of protected lands for these horses.

Back Country Safari Tours

Discover wild Spanish Mustangs and our unique Barrier Island ecology on the Wild Horse Safari. Explore over 30 miles of "off road" beach, dune and sand trail and ride with a professional naturalist guide in a custom 4x4 open-air Safari Cruiser or or experience the Beach Cruiser and Kayak Safari combination tour to paddle in the placid waterways of the wildlife rich Currituck Sound.  Beginner and intermediate paddles available. The Outer Banks Leader in off road Eco-Adventures! Where the Road  Ends....The Adventure Begins.

A wild Spanish Mustang - Back Country Safari Tours

Back Country Safari Kayak Tours

Back Country Safari Tours is pleased to offer two distinctly different kayak adventures. Both kayak adventures start out with a 12-mile beach exploration in a custom Safari Cruiser before we launch inside the Spanish Mustang Reserve!

4X4 and Kayak Safari

The beginner’s kayak tour navigates protected waters in search of horses and other wildlife, while also focusing on the nuts and bolts of how to kayak. Wildlife abounds on this trip and your adventure will be packed full of the natural history of all things Outer Banks! This trip is designed to not only cater to the novice or beginner kayaker, but also to families with children as well. For this reason, we use roomy 2 person (tandem) recreational kayaks that will provide you with plenty of leg room and stability.

Our signature tour takes the Safari one step further by adding a special kayak tour through the pristine waters and marshes of our coastal reserves in wild horse country! These unique excursions blend off-road thrills with a kayak nature tour in the untouched reaches of the Currituck Sound, and is undoubtedly the best of both worlds. You have not experienced the real Outer Banks, until you have spent time out on the water, navigating the serpentine creeks of marsh labyrinths, watched ospreys plummet into the water for fish, and experienced first hand the all encompassing peace of life on the sounds.

The culture of the Outer Banks has always been about the water and we are pleased to offer our customers a full immersion into this world apart from the civilization you left back home. After an excursion up the beach in our Open Air Safari Cruiser, we take off into the backcountry in search of horses, giant migratory sand dunes, rare species of wildlife and then ultimately to our private Spanish Mustang Preserve. Here in the preserve we will launch our kayaks and step back in time to another era. This is the true Outer Banks as the natives know it. And this is your opportunity to finally experience it first hand!
Duration: 3 hours

 Join us on these unforgettable adventures into the back country in search of the Corolla wild horses!

  • family friendly
  • naturalist guide
  • exclusive access to the Spanish Mustang Preserve

We are excited to have local naturalist guides, plus exclusive access to the private Mustang Preserve!

Corolla
252-453-0877
Hours
  • Monday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Tuesday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Wednesday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Thursday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Friday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Saturday8:00am-8:00pm
  • Sunday8:00am-8:00pm
Categories
Activities
The Cotton Gin

The Cotton Gin

For those traveling to the Outer Banks, The Cotton Gin is a beloved landmark with its large windmill and picturesque gardens. The Cotton Gin has stood in the same location since 1929, starting as a working cotton gin and growing to a gift store with 4 locations. Visitors are treated to a unique shopping experience in our main store in Jarvisburg, as well as our beach stores in Corolla, Duck, and Nags Head. Explore room after room filled with décor for your home and coastal fashions for both men and women. Discover the brands you really want, like, Vera Bradley, Vineyard Vines, La Mer Luex, Simply Southern, Lindsay Phillips, Scout, Pandora, Kameleon, Brighton, Spartina, Tommy Bahama, Southern Tide and Salt Life and Old Guys Rule - all under one roof!

 

Don’t forget the gourmet market, or shop our beautiful linens for your bedroom and bath. We also feature coastal books and fine art, or just a whimsical fun gift to bring home to family and friends. Stop by soon and don’t forget to try our estate grown wines in our stores or visit our vineyard and winery, Sanctuary Vineyards, located adjacent to the original Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg.

 

Most know The Cotton Gin as a must-stop shop for fine gifts, beachwear, souvenirs and so much more, but this retailer has a long-standing history within the Outer Banks. A local landmark that holds almost a century of memories, The Cotton Gin started from humble beginnings and continues to adapt to the times and tourists. Tommy Wright’s family has been in the Outer Banks for nearly 200 years. His great-great grandfather, Jacob Francis Wright, shipwrecked in Duck back in the early 1800s. Calling these barrier islands his new home, Wright and his family acclimated to their new environment.

 

Adaptation is a common theme for the Wright family. Tommy and his wife Candace, who continue to steer The Cotton Gin, have seen not only their business change with the times, but the Outer Banks as a vacation destination as well. A farm market in Jarvisburg eventually transformed and flourished into several retail locations dotting the Outer Banks.

 

“As the area changed and tourism took off in the 1960s, the family saw people coming for vacations, so they began to grow vegetables and things developed from there,” says Tommy Wright. The Wright family expanded upon the farm market and began to remodel a working cotton gin, later transforming the gin into The Cotton Gin general store in the late 1960s. While the additions to the farm store drew visitors, it was their encounters with the Wright family that kept people coming back year after year, which is something that remains true today.

(More Locations)