Wherever you go...

The Outer Banks are, of course, part of the South. So it's to be expected, I suppose, that you would run into right wing assholes. We stayed most of the time on the southern portion of the Outer Banks. That section is far less developed than the northern half. This is mainly because Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island have a huge percentage of National Park-protected acreage. Thus, there's no opportunity to overbuild and create a morass of buildings, shopping centers, and parking lots.

In addition, this has made some people unable to (in their eyes) profit from exploiting the land. They feel that their own position would be greatly improved if they could level the forests and carve down the dunes and put gas stations and condo units and retail shops in their places. I kept seeing signs excoriating the National Park Service and the Audobon Society for having the temerity to preserve the best about the Outer Banks.

Asshole right wing dinks. They're everywhere. Fortunately, they don't always win the debate.

Trail. Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.

Freshwater marsh, Bodie Island Preserve.

Large snapping turtle. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Buxton Woods. The right wing dinks seem to especially hate this spot, because its protection kept many buildings from being built atop the forests and dunes and marshes.

Trail in Buxton Woods.

Dune field, Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Jockey's Ridge

Another interesting spot we visited on the Outer Banks was Jockey's Ridge State Park. This is at the northern part of the Banks where there is a lot of commercial development. I did not like that part of the island chain because of the overbuilt construction and auto traffic (and crowds). There is still a lot to see, and I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from going. It's just that it wasn't the kind of place I generally like.

But it does have some exceptional sights to see, one of which is Jockey's Ridge, the biggest, tallest sand dune on the east coast of North America.

Sand dunes don't generally come to mind when I think of geological formations, but they are. Just as with any such anomaly of earth and physics, they can be as impressive as any mountain or canyon. The height of Jockey's Ridge apparently fluctuates quite a bit, going as low as 80 feet above sea level to as high as 110 feet above sea level. And the dune is enormous, taking up a vast amount of space there in the island. You can see far in every direction from the bare summit of the ridge.

The beginning of the trail to the top of Jockey's Ridge.

Surprisingly, there's a small freshwater pond lodged between several of the big dunes. It was full of minnows and tadpoles. I even saw some birds land there briefly while I was among the dunes.

I continued around the pond and assaulted the ridge.

For a good relation of the size of this gigantic dune (only partially seen in this photo), those tiny dots near the top are people.

Again...if you look closely you can see some figures on the top of the far dune. Those are people with hang gliders waiting for a good wind for launch.

Here is an image that's a good illustration of the nature of dunes...they "walk". In this case they are walking over this pine forest and will, I assume, completely cover it at some time.

As I headed back I had to round the pond again. You can see a crowd of tourists on the wooden overlook, some of them having descended like ants to tackle the Ridge. I had been lucky and had shared the dune with only one family--parents and a daughter.

Almost alone up there!

Kite Boarding!

I'd heard of kite boarding. And I've seen video of people engaging in the sport. But I had no idea how popular it was on the Outer Banks. I guess it seems logical. You have a surfboard that is powered by a huge kite instead of wave power or a motor boat. And, since the Outer Banks have almost constant high winds, the place is just a kite boarding paradise.

Indeed...sometimes the low skies looked to have been invaded by giant bats! There were often dozens of folk out there on the water with their kites and boards.

So. Here are some images of a day we took to go see museums and parks and, along the way, saw many happy people kite boarding.

I focused in on six people kite boarding at this location. There were actually about two dozen in this one spot. (This was on the Pamlico Sound side of Hatteras, and not the Atlantic.)

The kites are well designed and really pretty.

Let's go surfin' now!

Full wind!

And the regular surfers just sat there waiting for the waves. That mainly didn't arrive.

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!

Ferry Ride!

After three days at the Cedar Point Campground we pulled up stakes and headed toward Cedar Island where we would catch the ferry over to Ocracoke Island. The two places (Cedar Point and Cedar Island) are in no way related--the names are just similar.

The State operates a number of large ferries to take people from the mainland over to Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is a nice enough place and I'm sure it has a lot to offer, but because space is so limited there, we were unable to find a spot to park our truck and trailer to explore. So we made a quick visit once we were across the water and then headed directly north to take the free ferry that connects Ocracoke to Hatteras Island.

The ferry ride from Cedar Point to Ocracoke for our rig (truck and travel trailer) was only $30. I suppose part of the fee must be covered by state funds. The ferry we rode on was very nice and provided two air conditioned passenger cabins and a rooftop sitting area for those who just wanted to enjoy the fresh air.

The ride takes roughly two hours to get to Ocracoke. Then, once on the island there is another one-hour ferry ride to gain access to Cape Hatteras if you're headed north. So we spent a full three hours on ferries that day. The second leg was actually tiresome, as the novelty of riding the first ferry had pretty much worn off.

Nice little sign outside the Cedar Island visitor's center.

Our truck and Casita waiting in line at the ferry.

Carole, on board, waiting for departure.

Inside one of the passenger cabins.

I had been in the passenger cabin waiting for us to leave. So smooth was the departure that I didn't even know that we were underway until I walked out on deck! And I missed the dolphins tracking alongside the ship!

Underway!

Looking down on our stuff from the deck above.

After a two-hour ride we arrive at Ocracoke Island!

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.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Well, we're home. The drive back was a very long, so we're bushed.

We enjoyed the Outer Banks. Why did I wait so long to experience it? Well..."the mountains" is the answer to that one.

Briefly, I enjoyed the southern part of the Outer Banks far more than I did the northern half. When you get to Nags Head the development is just too severe. Too many houses, too much traffic, too many people.

I'll post details in the coming days.

Queuing for the ferry ride to Ocracoke Island.

Looking down on the truck and Casita from the viewing platform on the ferry deck. Cost to ride the ferry for our rig was only $30.

Carole enjoying the view and the nice breeze on the upper deck.

The Ocracoke Lighthouse on Ocracoke Island. The village there is not RV-friendly, so we basically had to dash through and head to the other end of the island to catch the next ferry to Hatteras Island where our camping reservations were. Maybe we'll go back to Ocracoke some day without an RV to try to park.