Coastal N.C. National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center

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Coastal N.C. National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center

The Gateway Visitor Center serves as a single welcome center for the state’s 11 National Wildlife Refuges and the Edenton National Fish Hatchery. The 17,840-square-foot center, which opened in June 2012, also serves as headquarters for the staff of the Alligator River NWR.

There were plans for trails, a prescribed fire demonstration area, a butterfly garden, an educational pavilion and more on the visitor center grounds, but they hadn’t been built when we visited in December 2012.

In addition to an auditorium, classroom and bookstore, the visitor center presents a variety of exhibits about wildlife reserves, including one about the restoration of the red wolf to the Alligator River area (below), which has been a point of pride for the refuge system, and some instruction on how to enjoy the refuges.

The 6-year-old red wolf below was found to have choked to death on a raccoon kidney. “Moral of the story —,” the plaque says, “Listen to your mother when she advises you not to wolf your food!”

Visitors can board the plane for widescreen aerial tours of each individual wildlife refuge and the fish hatchery, or with the console below (one of two) see a photo slideshow on a smaller screen

The Gateway Visitor Center is among several outdoors sites of interest on the Outer Banks, including the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Jockey’s Ridge State Park, and the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The Gateway Visitor Center is on Roanoke Island off of U.S. 64 Business northwest of Manteo, across from the entrance to the National Park Service’s Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.