Live Oak

This is a dirt driveway through the live oaks, at the end of a paved road on the Sound side of Avon, N.C. I had been wandering on the paved road, which has some very old graveyards on it, when I saw the dirt road snaking away through the trees. I felt almost compelled to follow it, but it was a private driveway. This was one of the largest groups of the oaks I had seen.

Live oaks stay green all winter (they are also called evergreen oaks), and were once used for building parts of boat hulls. Getting a straight plank from a live oak is not easy, so they were generally used for large structural parts.


The next photo is from Cumberland Island, and Island that’s been settled by people as far back as local written history goes, and farther than that, based on archeological evidence. Most of it is now part of the National Park system. This is just over the inside dune on the ocean side, where there is a NPS campground entirely under live oaks like these. The live oaks and the campground go up to the dune facing the ocean, and stop. It’s interesting coming in from the beach. You walk down the open beach, climb a wooden boardwalk over the dune and down into the oak grove.