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| 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.
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| So cold and windy |
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| 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.
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| Disembarking the ferry |
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| The walk from the ferry drop off point |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Quilt front |
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| 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.
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