Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

The Outer Banks are a thin broken strand of islands that curves out into the Atlantic Ocean and back again in a sheltering embrace of North Carolina's coast.

The islands are connected by Highway 12 which stretches south all the way to Hatteras Island.

Much of the highway stretches through narrow portions of the islands where the sand dunes sift over the road like drifting snow. There are dozers parked alongside the road ready to keep the sand at bay.

Anywhere there is an island wide enough, there are miles and miles of multiple-storied vacation rentals and summer houses --

Many of them are quite fanciful with towers and balconies offering views of the ocean --

At the end of the line (you need to take a ferry to go any further south...) you come to the Cape Hatteras Light Station --

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is an active light; at 198.5 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world.

The distinctive spiral paint of the lighthouse make it a daylight landmark. The treacherous waters off the coast of the Outer Banks bear the name Graveyard of the Atlantic. Over 600 ships wrecked here as victims of the shallow shoals, storms and war (including so many sunk by German submarines during WWII that it was known as Torpedo Alley). The Diamond Shoals, a bank of shifting sand ridges often hidden beneath the turbulent seas off of Cape Hatteras have claimed a legion of ships.

In the summertime, visitors are allowed to climb to the top. We did not pay the extra fee to make the climb...

Across the parking lot from the lighthouse, we saw these lovely ladies. They seemed totally oblivious to all the tourists...

 

As  we drove back north on the narrow two-lane road, we caught occasional glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean between the sand dunes.

We saw many people walking on the beaches, but few swimmers. The ranger at the lighthouse said that rip tides were very common.

On the other side, in Pamlico Sound, there were lots of people playing in the water. In one area there were so many kite surfers we couldn't understand how they kept from getting entangled...

 

The whole area of the Outer Banks islands -- except for the eight villages -- is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.