Saturday, November 8, 2014

In and About The Outer Banks of NC

It seems we have been on the go since we arrived in Kill Devil Hills a week ago.  Just like in the North Carolina and Virginia mountains, there is just so much to see and explore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Here is a quick overview of some of our day trips.

Our first stop was the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island.  As usual there are lots of large tanks with great displays of fish and other marine life native to coastal Carolina waters.  It's all interesting but a couple of the animal exhibits caught our attention.
We saw this rare rare albino-like alligator in one of the natural habitat display tanks.  It was on loan from an aquarium in Louisiana where that area is one of the only places where these unique alligators can be found.
 And these turtles were just waiting for me, posed for the camera.

The weather has been good.  Well, except for the nor'easter that blew threw last weekend.  It produced some high wind gusts and minor flooding.  Our campground seems to be in a sheltered area so we felt little effects.  This photo was taken from the sound side of the Roanoke Aquarium.


One day we drove north to Currituck Beach and Corolla.  Highway 12 ends with the road going right onto the beach.  There are warning signs one must use 4-wheel drive to continue on but we found the beach sand hard packed, kind of like Daytona Beach.  Ron never needed to put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive (it was low tide) however we saw several places of deep sand where 4-wheel must be used or you would be stuck. We did not see the Wild Spanish Mustangs of Corolla this time but we plan to go back and try our luck again.

Currituck Lighthouse
  We are planning to go back to spend more time here exploring the village of Corolla.


We drive by this side of Wright Brothers National Memorial each time we leave our campground.  It is always a great view to see. 


Bodie Island Light Station
We did not take the time to walk into the small museum this visit, I just wanted to take photos.  The morning sunlight was great.

Cape Hatteras Light Station
This is the best view with the afternoon sunlight.  The last time we visited this lighthouse, it was very close to the ocean.  Learn about it's historic move in 1999 here.

This was our first visit to Graveyard Of The Atlantic Museum in Hatteras.  We found this interesting museum full of shipwreck artifacts, Civil War naval history and a pretty good gift shop too.

Read more about the fascinating discovery and restoration of the original Cape Hatteras Fresnel Lens.
 here.

And I've got more later..

1 comment:

  1. Hard to believe it's been 15 years since the Hatteras Lighthouse was moved! We haven't been to that area in many years but your pictures make me want to go back :)

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