Cape Lookout and Down East North Carolina, Beaufort, North Carolina [March 12 – 14, 2023]

 

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

The North Carolina coast has three treacherous Capes with dangerous shoal waters that imperil seafarers.  Cape Hatteras is the northernmost Cape.  Cape Lookout is the center Cape to the South.  It is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.  Unlike Hatteras, the Core and Shackleford Banks that compose the Cape Lookout National Seashore are not inhabited by people.  To reach Cape Lookout, we took an Island Express passenger ferry from the National Park Service Visitors Center on Harkers Island.  During the warm months, there is an additional ferry from the town of Beaufort.  Our ferry also stopped at the Shackleford Banks where people hike or tent camp looking for the herd of Spanish horses that live on the Banks.

 

So cold and windy

The remote Shackleford Banks

The Cape Lookout lighthouse has a distinctive black and white diamond pattern, formally known as a “diagonal checker” pattern.  This daymark makes the lighthouse recognizable from sea, and differentiates it from the Hatteras (black and white spiral stripes), and Bodie (black and white horizontal stripes) and other lighthouse's daymarks.  The diamonds are aligned with the black diamonds North/South and the white diamonds East/West so the lighthouse looks different when seen from different directions.

 

It was (another) cold and blustery day when we took the ferry over.  The ferry dock had been damaged in a storm in December, so they let us off with a ramp onto the beach a ways from the lighthouse complex and we walked down the beach and across an inlet that was shallow or deep depending on the tide.  Dana was glad for her new high water boots that kept her feet dry, and even threw them back across the inlet for Russ to use as we returned to the ferry when the inlet water was getting deep.  The lighthouse is very striking and well worth the trip.  We also visited the wide and flat beach on the island.  We were told that the beach is crowded in the warm weather, on this day we had it all to ourselves.  We did not make it to the Cape Point, it was over 3 miles from the lighthouse.

Disembarking the ferry

The walk from the ferry drop off point

 

The inlet you have to traverse

On the same campus as the National Park Service Visitors Center is the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center.  The first floor has three exhibits, one documenting the many hurricanes that devastated the region in recent history, an extensive and quite beautiful handmade decoy collection, and a traveling exhibit space.  This held a collection of old quilts including one with a seed sack backing. 

 

Approaching Cape Lookout

Upstairs was devoted to the many tiny communities of Down East.  The folks living in the area between Cedar Island (where we got off the ferry from Ocracoke) and Beaufort call the region Down East.  This heritage center gave each community a table to curate with whatever was meaningful for them.  We saw much loved quilts, antique toys, old photographs, and other treasures with handwritten and typed labels telling the story of each community.  As we drove home, we recognized the named crossroads as we passed through them and remembered what artifacts they had chosen to represent their communities.  This is probably the most beautiful museum space we have visited.  The previous building was leveled by a recent hurricane, and they built a beautiful structure to replace it.  Entrance to the museum is free with a donation encouraged.

 

Quilt front

Feed sack backing - they used what they had...

The big town in this area is Beaufort, NC.  It is pronounce Bo-ford.  The town with the same name in South Carolina is pronounce Bu-ford.  Beaufort has a maritime museum that is doing the underwater archeology of Blackbeard (the pirate)’s flagship Queen Anne’s Revenge that was sunk near there.  You can see original artifacts that have been recovered and learn about the specific processes undertaken to restore them.  It is a very interesting exhibit and well worth the time to visit.  Entrance is free with a donation encouraged.

 

We stayed at the Beaufort Waterways RV Campground and Core Creek Marina.  This is a brand new partially completed campground on the inland waterway just outside of town in Beaufort.

A Ferry, an Island, and a Ferry – Ocracoke, North Carolina [March 9 - 11, 2023]

 

The only way you can get to Ocracoke is by boat, and when you live in a 29-foot long house on wheels, the only boat you can use is a ferry.  Our next stop on our exploration of the North Carolina coast was Ocracoke.

 

The other ferry arriving, shows the size and structure of these ferries.

Our departure point on Hatteras Island had been under gale force winds for days.  Ferry service had been interrupted the day before our departure (Yikes!).  The ferries leave every hour from Hatteras to Ocracoke.  We arrived 55 minutes before the ferry was scheduled to leave, and got in line behind a pick-up truck pulling a travel trailer.  There are two waiting lanes, “Priority” for delivery trucks and residents of the island, and the other for people like us who were just visiting. 

 

We take up a lot of space

The ferry has two lanes of parking on each side of the central bridge tower.  They loaded cars in front of us at the front of the ferry, then loaded the trailer and us on one side, and a huge dump truck on the other side of the bridge tower.  Because all three vehicles were also wide, we took up part of the second lane, so no cars could be loaded beside us.  They jig-sawed the cars (some sideways) behind us to get everyone else on. 

 

The crossing from Hatteras to Ocracoke takes a little more than an hour.  The distance between the islands does not look that great on the map, but the ferry had to go out into Pamlico Sound to avoid shallow shoals.

 

Sunset over Ocracoke from Jerniman's Campground

We last visited Ocracoke in April 2018 (see blog post here).  At the time, we were impressed by the many quaint, somewhat dilapidated, old homes that were rented to visitors to the island.  They made the island feel unique and like a moment out of time.  Hurricane Dorian roared through in September 2019 and flattened the island.  Those sweet, old homes were washed away.  Now they have new houses on stilts.  Construction is still going on, and there are quite a few empty lots that have been outfitted with trailers, presumably to house the many construction workers.  We forget how long it takes to recover from these ferocious weather events.  If you are not part of the disaster, your attention turns to the next one on the news, and then the one after.  In the meantime, these islands and other victims struggle to put themselves back together again.

 

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Ocracoke opens up for visitors starting in mid to late March, and is fully open in April.  While we were there, Jerniman’s campground (and adjoining gas station) were open, as well as Jason’s restaurant on one side (delicious food, by the way) and the grocery store on the other.  Every other business was closed.  It was fun driving through this sleeping village.

 

Our first stop in town was the Ocracoke lighthouse.  That was open!  The last time we were there, it was closed, but this winter for several hours, three days a week, a volunteer is on hand to tell the story of this beautiful structure.  The brick walls are 7 feet thick at the base, and 5 feet thick at the top.  It is still a working lighthouse, with an automated "welcoming" light managed by the Coast Guard, and the tower owned and managed by the National Park Service as part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  We learned that at some point long ago, the Coast Guard coated the outside of the brick lighthouse with a white concrete like substance.  Bricks need to “breathe” and the concrete had blocked the transfer of air and humidity.  The bricks are literally molding on the inside.  There are even fungus growing on the window ledges.  The Park Service has plans to remove the concrete and whitewash the structure, starting this year.

 

The lighthouse is molding

Near the lighthouse is the Springer’s Point Nature Preserve.  This 122 acre preserve protects maritime forest, salt marsh and wet grasslands on what is the highest point of land on Ocracoke.  The path is quite lovely, and takes you to a vista of the Sound side of the island overlooking Teach’s Hole, where Blackbeard the pirate was killed in 1718.  Along the path there are beauty spots where you can sit on benches and enjoy the tranquil scene.  There is a city owned parking lot near the lighthouse and the nature preserve.  There is no parking at the preserve.

 

Springer's Point

Our second day on the island, we took Schooner to walk on the Ocracoke beach.  It was an overcast and sometimes rainy day.  This was another dramatic, wide beach, which we had to ourselves.  We could get spoiled not having to share these gorgeous beaches

 

Beach at Ocracoke

To continue our trip South, we departed Ocracoke by ferry, headed toward Cedar Island and the area known as the Crystal Coast.  The strong winds persisted, and the motor home and tow car were covered in salt spray by the time we arrived. The Cedar Island ferry ride takes 2.5 hours.  We made lunch and relaxed as we watched the seas go by and the gulls following the ferry.  The ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke is free, the ferry from Ocracoke to Cedar Island has a fee, depending upon the length of your vehicle(s).

Goodbye Ocracoke! - Through our window

Here is a video of the motorhome loading on the Cedar Island Ferry.

Exploring Hatteras Island – Rodanthe and Frisco, North Carolina (March 4 – 8, 2023)

The North Carolina Outer Banks are one of our favorite spots, so we decided to start our exploration of the North Carolina coastline here.  Our trip got off to a rocky start with a dead alternator 1½ hours from home.  Russ and the Roadside Assistance folks kludged together a fix involving a jumper cable and the generator that provides electricity to the house part of the motorhome.  We limped home to our wonderful Ford truck repair guys who already had a new alternator ordered before we got to them. 

 

A campground to ourselves

Sunrise over the ocean in Rodanthe

The trip resumed two days later when we drove to Camp Hatteras Campground in Rodanthe, at the Northern end of Hatteras Island.  [We've blogged about this area before in 2018, and 2021.] We love walking on the seemingly endless beach there.  It being early March, we shared the 300+ site campground with about 15 other rigs.  We enjoyed having our own private campground and beach.  Most businesses in the area were closed, except for our favorite lunch spot, the Taqueria Las Ahumaderas taco truck.  Grilled fish tacos on corn tortillas! So yummy we returned for a second lunch the next day on our way out of town.

Yummy, yummy tacos

The next day, we drove 40 miles South to the town of Frisco, just past the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  Much of Hatteras Island is focused on tourists with restaurants and enormous vacation rental houses, yet Frisco feels like real people actually live and work there mixed in with a few tourist-focused businesses.  Frisco faces Pamlico Sound.  We camped at the utterly charming Frisco Woods Campground in a Sound-front campsite.  So beautiful with crazy, gorgeous sunsets.

 

Sunset over a calm Pamlico Sound in Frisco

Have you ever stood at the end of a major Cape?  Being so near the Lighthouse, we went to see the pointy end of the actual Cape Hatteras, known as (wait for it…) Cape Point.  It is a huge, sandy, fishing location, and the way there requires both a 4 wheel drive vehicle and an Off Road Vehicle permit, neither of which we have - so we walked.  First you follow a crushed shell road for about a half mile, and then scramble through soft, rutted sand for another half mile until you reach the ocean.  The ocean is truly impressive here with powerful, thundering waves.

 

The Lighthouse on the way to Cape Point

Cape Point

Frisco has an absolutely gorgeous, wide ocean beach with huge old sand dunes, so the next day we took Schooner to play on the beach.  The beach here is very flat with shallow water, making for interesting waves.  The winds were beginning to pick up, so the waves were pretty big.

 

Very tall sand dunes

Gorgeous Frisco beach

Later that day, we escaped the winds hiking in the Buxton Woods Coastal Reserve, a bit of protected Maritime Forest.  It has lovely trails following ancient, relic sand dunes and overlooking sedges, the lower ground between the dunes, that are often wet and marshy.  The reserve is part of the largest remaining tract of contiguous Maritime Evergreen Forest on the Atlantic coast.  It also is the northernmost maritime forest containing dwarf palmetto plants. It really is quite pretty, clambering up and down the heavily wooded ancient dunes.  We took the Lookout Loop Trail.  To get there you walk about ¾ of a mile down Old Doctors Road (again, you’d need a 4 wheel drive vehicle at spots to drive).  A lovely, quiet afternoon walk. The entrance to the Reserve is not well marked on Highway 12, and the directions on their website aren’t the greatest.  Should you go, take the Old Doctors Road entrance and park either in the old family graveyard parking lot or next to the kiosk with the trail map.  The other road mentioned in the directions is, well, a bad choice…

 

Hiking up a relic dune

A sedge - the low and often wet area between relic sand dunes

Northernmost forest containing dwarf palmetto

Our first evening at the campground was picture perfect.  The next day we awoke to gale force winds blowing from the North right across the Sound into our campsite.  Our motorhome shook with the force of the wind.  The Sound was alive with white crested waves.  The winds were supposed to die down the next day so we thought we would stay at this beautiful campsite and appreciate watching this actual “force of nature”.  The winds became so strong, that we could barely open our motorhome door against the wind, and one of us had to hold it open for the other and Schooner to enter or exit.  After a long night of listening to the wind roar and the motorhome rattle, we moved to a more protected, inland campsite.  Our last night there was peaceful, while the wind continued to rage over the Sound.

Calm enough to put out our new flag...

Then gale force winds - water being pushed over our road

Here is a video of the joy of a dog on the beach (Rodanthe)