Cape Hatteras & The Outer Banks

Using Roanoke Island as our base for a couple of days, we started our explorations south along Highway 12, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. At 208 feet, it is the tallest in the United States. We would have climbed the 248 stairs to the top, but they had closed the top due to high winds.

This is the info from the website: http://www.nps.gov/caha/index.htm The climb is strenuous! The 248 iron spiral stairs to the top equal climbing a 12 story building. The stairs have a handrail only on one side and a landing every 31 steps. There is no air conditioning. It may be noisy, humid, hot and dim inside the lighthouse and there is two-way traffic on the narrow stairs. Don't you think they should pay you $7 to climb the stairs!

The light from the lighthouse can be seen for 24 nautical miles, and shines every 7.5 minutes. It is repainted every 7 years. It was built in 1870, replacing the original lighthouse which was built in 1802.
In 1999, due to the changing shoreline they had to move this lighthouse from it's original location. It took 23 days to move it 2900 feet, at a cost of $11.8 million dollars. That's $4,069 per foot! The original location is now under water.

Caretaker buildings.

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Torpedo Junction
During WWII, the spring of 1942, German U-boats sank a ship a day in the waters off the outer banks.

We stopped for lunch on the beach, but just as we got settled, the wind shifted and started pelting us with fine white sand.