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National Parks: Part III, The Cape Hatteras Light Station
Author: Stan Deatherage | Published: November 13th, 2009
North Carolina's Outer Banks Again: Destination - Cape Hatteras Light Station
Living less than an hour and fifty minutes from Nags Head, my staging area to the National Seashore, I am regularly drawn to the beauty of one of the most beautiful and unspoiled seashores on eastern coast of the United States of America. On this quick trip to the seashore, my wife would not accompany me. I was alone, but I would be undeterred.
On that fine spring morning, after a beautiful sunrise and with the early morning thunderheads threatening, I would leave for Cape Hatteras. It was my destination and I was determined to brave the inclement weather to climb to the top balcony ringing the light house at the Cape.
Early sunrise in Nags Head: above. Later sunrise at the same locale: below.
As I headed south down NC Hwy. 12 in my Mustang, the convertible top down and James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" singing sweetly and loudly all about me, I drove in and out rain of showers, stopping just north of Bodie Island Light Station to put my top up. With some measure of rain in the back seat, I stopped at the ongoing renovation of the Oregon Inlet Life Saving Station to put the top down a second time to let the moisture evaporate.
And evaporate it did, as the clouds began to break ever so slightly as I headed south to the next of many stops to enjoy the peak-a-boo warmth of the springtime sun, the aroma of the sea and the sweeping grandeur of the geological oddity: North Carolina's Outer Banks.
The clouds are still thick with rain at the next stop east of the lakes in Pea Island Wildlife Refuge: above. Map of the day trip to Cape Hatteras: below.
Click map to enlarge to a much larger map of northeastern North Carolina.
Once again heading south, with the skies conveniently parting to reveal a deepening blue sky, I noticed that the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo had grown significantly since I had last visited the area around five years ago. Stopping in any villages today; however, was not on my agenda as I made my next stop at the Salvo Day Use Area. The day use area is one of two on the sound side of these barrier islands. Many people use these areas to: rest, soak in the natural beauty, or use the area as a staging platform for wind surfing or wind sailing in the wide and often windy Pamlico Sound.
The Salvo Day Use Area is an area with abundant hard surface parking and multiple access
points to a sandy beach and the clear, clean, salty waters of this component of the Pamlico Estuary. Also on the grounds of the day use area is cemetery that is lasting monument to some of the natives that continued as inhabitants as they survived the shoals and the harsh storms that continuous batter these far eastern barrier islands that alternately protect the mainland of the North Carolina coast. Among those interred, there are some former Southern soldiers from the War Against Northern Aggression and former Coast Guard life savers. Many served the northern part of the island that borders the Bodie (pronounced body and named for the bodies that washed up on the shores - north and south of Oregon Inlet) Island Light Station.
I took a seat in the sandy rise along the sandy shore, recharged from the contemplative moments of calm as I drank the slushy O.J. from the spout of 32 oz. hard plastic dispensary. I must admit, I am captivated by the combination of beautiful, brilliant colors as a backdrop to the wind inspired exploits of young men and women riding the rippled waters of this handsome sound.
To record my experience for posterity, I use my trusty digital camera (6.1 mega pixel, a fine 12x zoom lens and always shot in the manual mode) to take the snapshots of God's beautiful world. My family has shown a slightly required patience on our trips, but today, I am flying solo and left to my own devices, I tend to be a bit trigger happy. My philosophy: shoot every good shot I see, clean them up on the computer (adjust to plum and crop for effect) and store them away for future use or sale. For much of the rest of this travel journal, I will show a good many pictures as wide as the parameters of the scripts of our site will allow. So sit back, and take a look. If these pique your interest, we will have the much larger files for sale, when we complete betterphotographynow.com.
More wind surfing shots on the Pamlico: below.
After just a few miles south from the Salvo Day Use Area, I visit the wider waters to the east and shoot'em up. It was truly a day of sky and clouds and the theme is overwhelmingly represented in next number of shots on the Atlantic side of the barrier island and a few miles farther south at the second day use area - Haulover Day Use Area.
Fishing the surf just north of Cape Hatteras: above. Swimming the cold and rough mid-spring surf: below.
The Haulover Day Use Area just north of Cape Hatteras: above and below.
By 1:45 pm, I reached my destination - Cape Hatteras Light Station Buxton, NC. The first light house was completed in 1803 and the light in October. It was built of sandstone and stood just 90 feet tall, quite a bit shorter than the more than 210 feet high lighthouse that stands today. A second lighthouse of 150 feet tall was built in 1853, but was not as effective as needed, so there current lighthouse was constructed in 1870 and is today stands as the tallest brick lighthouse in North America.
The cast iron steps, bolted into the brick walls of the lighthouse with platform decks about every 30 feet where there are windows, consists of 269 steps. As I climbed slowly to the top, I fathomed the duties of the lighthouse keeper, and how he would walk that upward path every 12 hours, while hauling five gallons of kerosene to keep the light illuminating the Fresnel lens burning. Because of the height of the lighthouse and the aforementioned huge Fresnel lens, the rotating light could be seen as much as 16 miles out to those sailors at sea.
After much debate, the United States Congress enjoined in a public / private partnership to move the entire light station (including both keeper's house) 2,900 feet to its new location - a full 1,500 feet from the seashore. The move was at snail speeding 23 days, and below, I have pictures detailing the distance of the move, and the efforts made to stabilize the beach of the original location before the National Park Service threw in the proverbial towel. Also below I will exhibit another run of pictures (including pictures from the lighthouse balcony) - so hang in there, and remember, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
The beginning of the climb upwards. Not for those who suffer from vertigo: above. Looking through the cast iron door opening at the Cape of Hatteras, you can even see children ... especially children, without vertigo, that climb the stairs quite proficiently: below.
Looking back towards the old site, just to the left of the breakwater: above. Looking down at the keepers' houses that were also moved in 1999: below.
Looking down at Buxton and north to Avon up the island: above. Looking down and south along the Atlantic shore on the cape, where the four wheel drive vehicles line up to surf fish: below.
As I reported it earlier, the entire light station was moved in 1999. I had visited the former location in the very late 1970's before it was moved. I even did a pen and ink rendering of the lighthouse and the stone breakwater. I would be tragically remise if I did not visit the former site, that I showed earlier from the cast iron balcony of the lighthouse. At the site, granite blocks from the former foundation have the carved names of the former keepers to honor their dedication to the service of light and the maintenance of the structures. In life, while in that service, these keepers and their families worked diligently to keep the lighthouse running at an optimum level, and often were pillars of the community as well.
nbsp; The stone breakwater was fortified by a massive iron wall, but to no avail. The south side view of the breakwater: above. The north side of the breakwater: below.
From the breakwater looking north up the seashore: above. From the breakwater looking west to the lighthouse: below.
With sun lowering in the sky and the rain clouds staying away, I was compelled to return to the Cape Hatteras Light Station to get some softer, richer picture of the lighthouse. Before I headed north to Nags Head, I got some good shots that I will share with you here below. Please remember that if you like these pictures, you will love betterphotographynow.com, where the files are large, the variety diverse and plentiful, and the stock pictures will be very inexpensive.
The lighthouse from behind the keeper's house: above. One last shot before I rejoin the road: below.
It was 5:00 pm when I began my journey back to Nags Head, and I was determined to enjoy the ocean and the sound before I returned to the multiple four walls of the timeshare, so I stopped first on the east side of the island, and then again on the west side at the Salvo Day Use Area. The following are a number of pictures that I am fond of.
Back at the day use area, I enjoyed time with my camera, taking this backlit picture of the windsurfer: above. The beach at Salvo Day Use Area: below.
After my break on the sandy banks of the Pamlico Sound, I head north with the storm clouds gathering darker and more ominous. More rain possibly? More pictures definitely; but we are drawing to this day�s conclusion, and as the sun sinks lower among the billowing clouds, I must say good bye. But first a short burst of pictures of the day's end. The first shot is the high dunes along NC Hwy 12 that runs through the middle of the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.
Wind sailor in the surf at seashore in the Pea Island Wildlife Reserve: above. The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge spanning the Oregon Inlet before I head across it and back to Nags Head: below.
Living less than an hour and fifty minutes from Nags Head, my staging area to the National Seashore, I am regularly drawn to the beauty of one of the most beautiful and unspoiled seashores on eastern coast of the United States of America. On this quick trip to the seashore, my wife would not accompany me. I was alone, but I would be undeterred.
On that fine spring morning, after a beautiful sunrise and with the early morning thunderheads threatening, I would leave for Cape Hatteras. It was my destination and I was determined to brave the inclement weather to climb to the top balcony ringing the light house at the Cape.
Early sunrise in Nags Head: above. Later sunrise at the same locale: below.
As I headed south down NC Hwy. 12 in my Mustang, the convertible top down and James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" singing sweetly and loudly all about me, I drove in and out rain of showers, stopping just north of Bodie Island Light Station to put my top up. With some measure of rain in the back seat, I stopped at the ongoing renovation of the Oregon Inlet Life Saving Station to put the top down a second time to let the moisture evaporate.
And evaporate it did, as the clouds began to break ever so slightly as I headed south to the next of many stops to enjoy the peak-a-boo warmth of the springtime sun, the aroma of the sea and the sweeping grandeur of the geological oddity: North Carolina's Outer Banks.
The clouds are still thick with rain at the next stop east of the lakes in Pea Island Wildlife Refuge: above. Map of the day trip to Cape Hatteras: below.
Click map to enlarge to a much larger map of northeastern North Carolina.
Once again heading south, with the skies conveniently parting to reveal a deepening blue sky, I noticed that the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo had grown significantly since I had last visited the area around five years ago. Stopping in any villages today; however, was not on my agenda as I made my next stop at the Salvo Day Use Area. The day use area is one of two on the sound side of these barrier islands. Many people use these areas to: rest, soak in the natural beauty, or use the area as a staging platform for wind surfing or wind sailing in the wide and often windy Pamlico Sound.
The Salvo Day Use Area is an area with abundant hard surface parking and multiple access
points to a sandy beach and the clear, clean, salty waters of this component of the Pamlico Estuary. Also on the grounds of the day use area is cemetery that is lasting monument to some of the natives that continued as inhabitants as they survived the shoals and the harsh storms that continuous batter these far eastern barrier islands that alternately protect the mainland of the North Carolina coast. Among those interred, there are some former Southern soldiers from the War Against Northern Aggression and former Coast Guard life savers. Many served the northern part of the island that borders the Bodie (pronounced body and named for the bodies that washed up on the shores - north and south of Oregon Inlet) Island Light Station.
I took a seat in the sandy rise along the sandy shore, recharged from the contemplative moments of calm as I drank the slushy O.J. from the spout of 32 oz. hard plastic dispensary. I must admit, I am captivated by the combination of beautiful, brilliant colors as a backdrop to the wind inspired exploits of young men and women riding the rippled waters of this handsome sound.
To record my experience for posterity, I use my trusty digital camera (6.1 mega pixel, a fine 12x zoom lens and always shot in the manual mode) to take the snapshots of God's beautiful world. My family has shown a slightly required patience on our trips, but today, I am flying solo and left to my own devices, I tend to be a bit trigger happy. My philosophy: shoot every good shot I see, clean them up on the computer (adjust to plum and crop for effect) and store them away for future use or sale. For much of the rest of this travel journal, I will show a good many pictures as wide as the parameters of the scripts of our site will allow. So sit back, and take a look. If these pique your interest, we will have the much larger files for sale, when we complete betterphotographynow.com.
More wind surfing shots on the Pamlico: below.
After just a few miles south from the Salvo Day Use Area, I visit the wider waters to the east and shoot'em up. It was truly a day of sky and clouds and the theme is overwhelmingly represented in next number of shots on the Atlantic side of the barrier island and a few miles farther south at the second day use area - Haulover Day Use Area.
Fishing the surf just north of Cape Hatteras: above. Swimming the cold and rough mid-spring surf: below.
The Haulover Day Use Area just north of Cape Hatteras: above and below.
By 1:45 pm, I reached my destination - Cape Hatteras Light Station Buxton, NC. The first light house was completed in 1803 and the light in October. It was built of sandstone and stood just 90 feet tall, quite a bit shorter than the more than 210 feet high lighthouse that stands today. A second lighthouse of 150 feet tall was built in 1853, but was not as effective as needed, so there current lighthouse was constructed in 1870 and is today stands as the tallest brick lighthouse in North America.
The cast iron steps, bolted into the brick walls of the lighthouse with platform decks about every 30 feet where there are windows, consists of 269 steps. As I climbed slowly to the top, I fathomed the duties of the lighthouse keeper, and how he would walk that upward path every 12 hours, while hauling five gallons of kerosene to keep the light illuminating the Fresnel lens burning. Because of the height of the lighthouse and the aforementioned huge Fresnel lens, the rotating light could be seen as much as 16 miles out to those sailors at sea.
After much debate, the United States Congress enjoined in a public / private partnership to move the entire light station (including both keeper's house) 2,900 feet to its new location - a full 1,500 feet from the seashore. The move was at snail speeding 23 days, and below, I have pictures detailing the distance of the move, and the efforts made to stabilize the beach of the original location before the National Park Service threw in the proverbial towel. Also below I will exhibit another run of pictures (including pictures from the lighthouse balcony) - so hang in there, and remember, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
The beginning of the climb upwards. Not for those who suffer from vertigo: above. Looking through the cast iron door opening at the Cape of Hatteras, you can even see children ... especially children, without vertigo, that climb the stairs quite proficiently: below.
Looking back towards the old site, just to the left of the breakwater: above. Looking down at the keepers' houses that were also moved in 1999: below.
Looking down at Buxton and north to Avon up the island: above. Looking down and south along the Atlantic shore on the cape, where the four wheel drive vehicles line up to surf fish: below.
As I reported it earlier, the entire light station was moved in 1999. I had visited the former location in the very late 1970's before it was moved. I even did a pen and ink rendering of the lighthouse and the stone breakwater. I would be tragically remise if I did not visit the former site, that I showed earlier from the cast iron balcony of the lighthouse. At the site, granite blocks from the former foundation have the carved names of the former keepers to honor their dedication to the service of light and the maintenance of the structures. In life, while in that service, these keepers and their families worked diligently to keep the lighthouse running at an optimum level, and often were pillars of the community as well.
nbsp; The stone breakwater was fortified by a massive iron wall, but to no avail. The south side view of the breakwater: above. The north side of the breakwater: below.
From the breakwater looking north up the seashore: above. From the breakwater looking west to the lighthouse: below.
With sun lowering in the sky and the rain clouds staying away, I was compelled to return to the Cape Hatteras Light Station to get some softer, richer picture of the lighthouse. Before I headed north to Nags Head, I got some good shots that I will share with you here below. Please remember that if you like these pictures, you will love betterphotographynow.com, where the files are large, the variety diverse and plentiful, and the stock pictures will be very inexpensive.
The lighthouse from behind the keeper's house: above. One last shot before I rejoin the road: below.
It was 5:00 pm when I began my journey back to Nags Head, and I was determined to enjoy the ocean and the sound before I returned to the multiple four walls of the timeshare, so I stopped first on the east side of the island, and then again on the west side at the Salvo Day Use Area. The following are a number of pictures that I am fond of.
Back at the day use area, I enjoyed time with my camera, taking this backlit picture of the windsurfer: above. The beach at Salvo Day Use Area: below.
After my break on the sandy banks of the Pamlico Sound, I head north with the storm clouds gathering darker and more ominous. More rain possibly? More pictures definitely; but we are drawing to this day�s conclusion, and as the sun sinks lower among the billowing clouds, I must say good bye. But first a short burst of pictures of the day's end. The first shot is the high dunes along NC Hwy 12 that runs through the middle of the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.
Wind sailor in the surf at seashore in the Pea Island Wildlife Reserve: above. The Herbert C. Bonner Bridge spanning the Oregon Inlet before I head across it and back to Nags Head: below.
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