Two Treasure Hunts Where the Dog Is the Point
Most vacation activities make you choose: do the thing, or bring the dog. These don't. Both are self-guided adventures that run on your phone — puzzles, stories, and photo challenges threaded through real places — and both were written dog-first. The leash rules are built into the route, the photo challenges star the dog, and nobody's waiting on a tour guide's schedule. $29 per team, up to six people plus the dog, any day, any time, rain date whenever you feel like it.
The Salty Dog
Nags Head · on foot · a few hours
The classic. You'll climb the East Coast's tallest dune at Jockey's Ridge, hit the beach under Nags Head's dog-friendly year-round rules, and finish legs at the fenced dog park — the one stop where the leash comes off and the zoomies are the challenge. Puzzles about the places you're standing, photo tasks your dog will dominate, and a scoreboard for the competitive members of the family.
Bring: a leash (10 ft or less — town law), water for the dog, and a phone with a camera.
The Salty Dog — $29Off-Roading with Fido
Carova 4x4 beach · in your 4WD · half a day
The wild one. You'll drive the beach north of where the pavement ends — past the Currituck Beach Lighthouse's territory, over the ghost of a buried village at Penny's Hill, through wild horse country to the fence at the Virginia line. Chapters unlock as you go; the dog rides shotgun and stars in the photo challenges (leashed or in the vehicle, always — that's in the game's rules too).
Bring: a real 4WD aired down for sand — read this first. No truck? Beach4x4 rents them.
Off-Roading with Fido — $29Which one?
Take The Salty Dog if: it's your first OBX trip with the dog, you're staying between Kitty Hawk and South Nags Head, you don't have a 4WD, or you want the version where you can bail into a dog-patio lunch mid-hunt.
Take Off-Roading with Fido if: you've got the 4WD (or the rental), you want the emptiest beach on the East Coast, and your dog's best self is the one with wind in its face. Wild horses guaranteed to matter; see the 50-foot rule before you go.
Doing both? Correct answer. Salty Dog early in the week, Fido as the finale.
How it works
- Buy the hunt on our hunt site — checkout takes two minutes.
- Your team link arrives by email. One phone runs the game; the team plays around it.
- Start at the trailhead whenever you like — morning beach hours are the pro move in summer.
- Solve, photograph, score. The dog does the celebrity appearances.
Both hunts live on our hunt site, outerbankstreasurehunt.com, alongside five more OBX adventures for the dogless days.