On Hatteras Island

Our final camping destination was on Hatteras Island. We had chosen a private campground near Buxton as your spot to remain for the rest of our vacation. It was rather far down the chain of barrier islands, but was at the less developed part of the Outer Banks. As it turned out, it was a very good choice, as we very much did not care for the northern parts of the Outer Banks where building is out of control and the subsequent traffic and crowds make it almost impossible to have a good time.

Frisco Woods is an old-fashioned campground that has a lot of trees and grass with only part of the facility set up as a more modern business to which I like to refer as "parking lots". We set up our trailer in a grassy campsite with electric and water hookups. They do have sites with sewer hookups, but they're much more expensive and and offer no shade, being out in the open.

Overall, we did enjoy the Frisco Woods Campground, but the owner is a taciturn sort and was not the friendliest guy I'd ever encountered. Not a good trait if you're in the business of dealing with the public on a daily basis. But maybe that's why he was severe. His manner did prove out to be helpful when some college kids arrived in the campground and caused some trouble for some other campers--the guy descended on them like a shrike and put them in their places, after which they were practically Eagle Scouts.

The Ocracoke Lighthouse is completely surrounded and closed in by private property. But one of those properties has some kickass beautiful trees in the yard. Here was a particularly attractive live oak.

And this gnarled, old cedar tree was also beautiful.

We stopped at a National Seashore administered beach on the way to the second (and last) ferry ride. This is a renourished dune that had been washed away in a storm. Full of crushed road debris.

Our rig at the beach parking lot. We stopped just to see what an Outer Banks beach looks like.

Our stuff packed in like a couple of sardines in the last ferry.

We pass another loaded ferry on the way over.

Our campsite as Frisco Woods. At last!

Finally, we could relax. Note the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse beyond the dunes!

Very Little Wildlife

One big disappointment for me on this trip was a lack of wildlife. I had always heard great stories about the variety of bird life on the Outer Banks and was looking forward to spotting some rare species. Also, since we were going to be in the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge for one day I was thinking we would see some black bears (they're thick there) and maybe even a Red wolf (their numbers are growing in the Refuge).

But we saw very little in the way of wild creatures. Oh, we spotted the usual suspects: White-tailed deer, sliders, pelicans, osprey, red-winged blackbirds, terns, sandpipers, and the like. But nothing to get us excited. I've been told we were there at a good time to spot good numbers and ranges of animals...but the luck was not with us, in that respect.

Apparently it was egg-laying season for snapping turtles. To that end, we did manage to rescue two snapping turtles from very dangerous journeys across the highway. In both cases I pulled off the road and ran back to gather them up and transport them to a safer location. One of the turtles was rather small (I picked her up by the tail and placed her in a sand bucket), but the second one was pretty darned large and I had to corral her into a box and place her in the back of the truck. But we managed to take them to good, safe spots away from the road where they could find both shelter and nesting places.

The small snapping turtle in the sand bucket.

A final portrait before I showed her the pond.

As soon as she saw the water...she was off!

Splash!

"HA! HA! You can't catch me now, human!"

"I'm out o' here!"

"The point of no return!"

And then, all but invisible.

Carole cheers me on from the boardwalk above the pond.

Outer Banks Lighthouses

One of the things we wanted to do while on the Outer Banks was to see as many of the historical sites as possible while we were there. The area was among the first places to be settled by Europeans, so there is quite a bit to see in that respect. High on our list were the four big lighthouses on the main parts of the Outer Banks islands. We were able to take care of seeing all four of these buildings, each of which is very impressive and seem to be in good repair and easily accessible.

Of the four lighthouses, the one that was most difficult to see was the one on Ocracoke Island. It's the smallest of the houses, but is surrounded by private property and has almost no parking. There is only enough space for four autos to park there, and no space at all if you have an RV (as we did). Try to park anywhere else and the notices to have your vehicle towed are all too apparent.

We ended up parking the truck and trailer beside a shop that was out of business. But even though it was shut permanently, we still almost got into trouble. The owner apparently lives down the street from the building and saw us park beside the shuttered business and had arrived on the scene just as we got back and drove away. We just missed having a tow truck pull up and cause us much despair.

The Ocracoke Lighthouse. Surrounded by private property. Not the friendliest of the lighthouses to try to visit.

The Bodie Island Lighthouse. A National Park Service location and with ample parking opportunities.

The Currituck Lighthouse. This is on the far north of the island at Corolla. Not owned by the National Park Service, but by the local government, apparently. There is plenty of parking and easy access and the lighthouse is part of a larger historic district. It's all very beautiful and peaceful, but the northern part of the Outer Banks is overdeveloped and extremely overbuilt and crowded with very heavy auto traffic. I did not care for any of the Outer Banks beyond Nags Head and will probably never return to those spots now that I've seen the historical locations we wanted to see.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This was our favorite of the four lighthouses. They were in the midst of repainting it. You can see the painting scaffold just above the red brick. They were about halfway done with the job while we were there. This is on the southern end of the Outer Banks and this part of the islands are far less commercially developed and most of the acreage seems to be locked up as National Park land or Wildlife Refuge, thus protecting it from the kind of hideous exploitation that we saw in the north.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse still serves as an active facility. We waited below one evening until the light came on to see it in action.