One of the better kept secrets in our area is the Hammocks Beach State Park.  The park is located just minutes from the beautiful small coastal town of Swansboro.  This park offers hiking trails, public boat ramp, boat tours over to several close islands, visitor's center, beach access, bath house, picnic area, and campsites.   We recently checked out the hiking trails and fell in love with them.  The trails are well marked, well maintained and offer water/marsh views as well as the quiet woodlands.  We started on the Live Oak trail, turned onto the Evergreen trail, then the Coastal Fringe trail, and finally onto the Hickory Bluff trail.   If you do all of the loops you will log in around 3+ miles.   It is a dog friendly park as we encountered a number of hikers with their dogs.   Something which was also nice is that everyone we met on the trails were super friendly.   Here is a link to the website:  https://www.ncparks.gov/state-parks/hammocks-beach-state-park