Two different locals also said that Penny Hill is a shadow of its former self, much of it having blown toward the bay side in the past 25 years. A favorite pastime in the old days was to get drunk, drive a pickup truck up Penny Hill, and either drive or roll down. From the Ocean Hill entrance to the beach entrance is about 0.9 miles. It's about another 2.5 miles to Luark Hill. Hiking on the beach, with nice hard sand just above the strand line, is delightful.
Wild horses roam the area, further adding to the ambiance.
The hike to Luark took about an hour from the garden center. Many huge homes are springing up along the beach, and access is only going to become more difficult. Next to Luark, the signed Munson Lane cuts through the dunes, and passes two large houses under construction. The dune is very obvious, bare, and much larger than anything passed along the way. Hand leveling toward the house and estimating from there, I estimated the dune at no higher than 50 feet.