Cape Hatteras National Seashore

This is for latest road trip vacations ended or should I say started. The OBX is an excellent place to get away and unwind and get close to nature. You can take your time and lounge on the beach, fish, kayak, surf, any assortment of water sports or other activities that you would like to indulge in.
I believe it’s enough that they have a boardwalk, there is also an outlet mall somewhere along the way in each little city is completely different from the northern end of the southern end of the OBX.
What a delightful place to spend a vacation. What are you vacationing with friends, family, or loved ones it all works out. Perfect for children and adults alike. The water, the piers, the lighthouses, all the natural history, the sound… all so beautiful and serene.
Every place you turn there’s beauty. On the Eastside you have the ocean and on the west side you have the sound. Both are uniquely different and equally as beautiful. It’s a place where you can see the sunrise or the sunset depending on which side you’re on.
Even in a weeks time it’s hard to fit in everything that you want to do. There is so many unique things to do and see from the wild horses — lighthouses — watersports to anything that you’re interested in. A totally wonderful vacation spot, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my stay.
What’s a girl to do? Enjoy every second of every vacation.

What a beautiful area… even with a tropical storm whirling about it’s a great place to visit. We drove the two hours from Corolla and even with having driven 8 hours the day before, we didn’t regret the drive down.

Best beach I’ve been to outside the Caribbean. Water is crystal clear and warm. Definitely hit the beach adjacent to the lighthouse. It is great. There is a sandbar offshore and you can walk out a good 50
Feet and still be less than knee deep. Waves are good for boogie boarding but since it is relatively shallow, there is no fear. Plus this part is life guarded. My only negative would be a bathhouse or someplace to change other than a porta potty

This is a great day trip. There is a lot to see driving down the seashore and fun places to stop. Definitely climb the lighthouses.

This area is super! The beaches are wonderful. We stopped on the side of the road a couple times to jump over the dunes and enjoy the quiet beach. It’s really great to drive down the road and be able to see a sound on one side and an ocean on the other. Super fantastic drive and totally worth it to pull over and enjoy the scenery!

This is hard to explain, as words can not express the beauty of this place. It is a place you must experience and see for yourself. It is full of pristine beaches and all sorts of nesting sea birds. There are no condos or hotels to block all of this beautiful scenery, and the air… there is nothing like the air off the ocean. This is a good place to bring your kite and fly it or bring your fishing rods and do some fishing from the surf. I like to walk out to the sandbar and fish from there too, that way I get to enjoy the water while fishing. Or like some people like to do is just walk the beach. There is no one to bother you besides a fiddler crab or two, and who knows what you might find on the beach. I have been down here on the beach during the off season and there was no one as far as I could see. Now it don’t get much more peaceful then that. The only problem I have with this place is… I have to leave and go home, but that’s ok I can come back and play another day.

When most people think about «Cape Hatteras», they think about the lighthouse, which is fine. But the seashore is actually more — a whole lot more, in fact, stretching some 70 miles along the outer banks, from Bodie Island to Ocracoke.
Those of you out there who have only visited the beach by going to someplace like Myrtle will not be familiar with a place like this. It is a long (really long in places) stretch of two-​lane highway that has the ocean on one side and the sound on the other. Seriously. There are places where you feel like you could just about stretch out and touch both bodies of water at the same time.
About the only downside is that there are places where it gets desolate now and again. If you are in somewhere like Ocracoke, it can get crowded if that is your scene — but if you want to pretend you are the last person on the planet, you can do that as well, and those are probably the better places to be — anyone can go somewhere that is crowded, right? You came here to get away from it all.

One of the best parts about road trips are things like the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Easy driving on a 2 lane, recently repaved road. Plenty of turn offs with lots of parking. Great scenic shots. Good number of stops with lighthouses or rest rooms.
The ranger programs are supposed to be fantastic here, but unfortch I didn’t partake. I do have some fabulous sunset photos though! Worth a trip for a lazy afternoon to the beach or for sunset catching off the bridges.

We came here to the ranger program on crabbing. It was hilarious. There was a family that brought a whole chicken from the supermarket. Basically, they took the whole chicken and put it in the trap that our ranger provided. We had bought some chicken necks from the local bait shop. The ranger showed us how to hook it on a long string attached to a stick. We went to this inlet bay for crabbing which was fun and exciting. Well, the smart old crabs hid under heavy rocks so I was just left with bone. The dumb young crabs were easy to catch but the ranger measured with a yard stick which was too small to keep. Ugghrr… Well, we picked up some crabs at the local supermarket to cook at home. There are a couple of lighthouses to visit as well here. I would have liked to go to a ranger program at Ocracoke to learn about the sea turtles. It sounded a bit of trek having to take a ferry so we decided against it at the time. Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out Pea Island Wildlife Refuge which has some nice boardwalks.

We spend a ridiculous amount of time at the beach. May rating may be skewed because I love an Ocean Beach. Here is the run down:
There was ample parking, we could pull up and park no matter when we got there.
Clean bathrooms, Nice Showers (outdoor/​not private)
Very good evening ranger program, ghost crabs, night sky and bioluminescent plankton.
Life Guards
Very clean and well maintained
Nice waves for boogie boarding, and when the waves aren’t to rough you can get out and swim and relax. Quite beautiful.
FREE
If they had a snack bar, 5*

From Nag’s Head in the North to Ocracoke Island in the South, there is quite simply nothing like Cape Hatteras Natl Seashore. Not on the West Coast, not on the Gulf of Mexico, not in New England, not in Hawai’i, nowhere! These shifting, slender islands of sea, sand, salt, and sun are unforgettable. Even years later, all I have to do is close my eyes, and suddenly I am back:
I.
The drive in.
The kites at Kitty Hawk and dunes of Jockey’s Ridge
A long strip of black-​topped asphalt
An often washed-​out highway
A beach road
Its name is number 12
It barely rises above the sea
To cross an Oregon inlet
On a bridge over troubled waters
Past marshes and migrating birds seeking a Pea Island refuge
Bodie’s house shines the way:
Rodanthe
Waves
Salvo
Avon
Buxton
Frisco
Driftwood and white shells that crunch underneath my sunburnt feet
Tire tracks sunk deeply in the sand
Birds tottering on spindly legs
Racing the waves in search of a morning meal
Dolphins diving and surfacing as they transit the coast
Pelicans in long grey lines flying in front of a setting sun
Past Hatteras point
And its black and white light
Warning mariners of dangerous Diamond Shoals ahead
Past the fishing piers and ferries
And our landing of mahi mahi (dolphin fish) in the Gulf Stream
Almost losing our breakfast (and lunch) to get there
The shimmering green and yellow scales of these beautiful dying fish
The searing pain and pleasure of eating that which you have killed.
II.
Another day.
The empty white beaches of Ocracoke and unfamiliar accents of the locals
The grilling of skate, the drinking of beer, and the watching of stars that come out at
Night
Then sleep
Later
A swim
Salt in my eyes, my mouth, my hands, my
Wet hair dried by a warm wind that whistles past reddened ears
Ears now gone cold as I shiver in the dark of another early morning
With only a tripod and camera to keep me company
An unlikely trio crouched quietly outside a rented house
Waiting together for the rising of the sun
They do not feel my deep disappointment days later
Of what I fail to capture on film
Packing bags and washing the grit from my sandals
The sadness in my heart and tears in my eyes when I must go
And leave you behind
Once more.
III.
The drive home.
The beltway
Another beltway
And then another
(Angry memories)
The alienation of my Baltimore apartment when I return
To unfinished chapters and
Unedited prose
And stories to be told about women and men and nations and empires
Long gone
Buried in history
So much harder to write than one’s inner voice
So hard to tell tales of the lives of others.
IV.
A new year approaches
But in my mind
If I shut my eyes to the here and now
And listen to the sounds of a forgotten wind
It is as if I had never left you
My other coast
My other life
My fading story
Erased like footsteps on a distant shore.
Who will recall them when we are gone?
Who will tell tales of our new millennium?
Who will channel the Outer Banks of our memories?
Sometimes a passing bumper sticker can reveal a great truth:
OBX
:
U
R
4Ever!
It is
We
Who
R
N
o
t
.
(Happy New Year 2010, East Coast!!)

A great place to get some site-​seeing done. There are a number of things to see around and near the seashore (and not all are under the National Park Service). There are two lighthouses: the Bodie Island lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. It was too hot the day I went to that last one, so the park decided not to let people up it (I don’t think anyone is allowed up the Bodie Island lighthouse). There are visitor centers at the Ocracoke Island, Hatteras Island, and at the Bodie Island lighthouse; and there is an information center at the Whalebone Junction.