Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
The only full day of our visit to the Outer Banks was wet. I only took my camera out of its protective case once, in the afternoon when we visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse. There is a nature trail on a boardwalk extending out into the marsh from the lighthouse site. At the end there are stairs up to a viewing platform that had a roof overhead. So I took out the camera and got a great picture of the lighthouse and another one of a great egret that was hunting in the marsh below. The camera got wet anyway because a breeze blew the rain under the roof. I dried it off as best I could.
I was so glad I invested in a good raincoat earlier this year. (I had made good use of it before, as it rained all day when we buried Tim’s ashes.) Even though I couldn’t take pictures it was a joy to be able to watch my Katie be captivated by all the crabs she spotted in the water, skittering around on the mud between mounds of marsh grasses.
One goal I had when I was younger was to visit every national seashore. Life got in the way, but I was happy to add Cape Hatteras N.S. to the ones I have been to, Cumberland Island N.S., Assateague Island N.S., and of course, Cape Cod N.S.
In the morning we had visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial. I was awed to be standing on the grounds where those historic first four flights took place. They had markers where the plane landed, with the distance of the flight, how long it took, and who flew it. They took turns, Orville went first, so I’m guessing that is Wilbur watching in the photo below. They wanted this sandy spot so they could have soft landings. Each flight was a little farther and my Finn decided we would walk the distance to see all four markers. The fourth flight, with Wilbur, went 852 feet and lasted 59 seconds.
They were the first men in history to fly a controlled, powered airplane.
image credit: U.S. National Park Service
I’m relying on photos donated to Wikimedia Commons to remember the rest of the day. More walking, it was a half-mile walk from where the flights happened to the 60 foot tall monument that was built in 1932 on top of Kill Devil Hill. About 95 feet above sea level, the hill was a huge sand dune where the brothers conducted their glider experiments. What a view there was up there! And then half a mile back to the visitor center, which was full of interesting artifacts and historical information on the whole Wright family.
image credit: Yuming Huang (2017)
After all that walking we returned to our vacation rental for lunch and then headed down to see the lighthouse. After the lighthouse we drove farther south, enjoying the breathtaking scenery. I had no idea that Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge was next to the national seashore! Driving over the bridge in the picture below (I think) we could see these spectacular dunes. (Again, due to the rain I’m borrowing someone else’s pictures.) It was getting late so we pulled into a road to turn around, and that’s when I saw the sign for the wildlife refuge. I have often heard birders raving about this place. According to AI, it is “a world-renowned birding hotspot that has recorded over 370 bird species.” Well, I hope I can come back here and explore someday!!!
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Outer Banks, North Carolina
And so another wonderful day ended with supper, working on puzzles, and enjoying some good conversations, followed by another good night of sleep.
Bummer about the weather, but it sounds like you made the best of it! That wildlife refuge sounds like a place I’d love to see someday.
It’s always taking a chance with the weather when booking a vacation rental! May there be wildlife refuges in our futures, rain or shine. 🌧️☀️
A place I have often dreamed of visiting, it sounds as wonderful as I had dreamed it. Maybe some day I will get there. 🤞🏼
May all our travel dreams come true! My daughter has been telling me how beautiful the Outer Banks is for years – I’m so glad she finally dragged me out there.
I have seen pictures of the shore and the beautiful lighthouse, but have not seen it in person. That’s a shame that Mother Nature had to dampen your visit, but you still got a great shot of the Bodie Island Lighthouse and the beautiful Great Egret. That would be interesting to be right where the birthplace of aviation took place. Thanks for that info about the Wright Brothers. Look how far we’ve come since then and the other day I heard that soon there will be flying cars, like “The Jetson’s” TV show I watched as a kid, many years ago.
I was surprised how engaging the Wright brothers story was for me. I could have spent more time there, just contemplating all their curiosity and determination to figure it out in spite of so many setbacks. And learning about their parents and siblings was just as fascinating. And then to be standing on the very ground where those flights happened. I know Tim would have loved this place. But of course, the natural world was pulling my heartstrings and I’m so glad I got a little dose of the wilderness, too, in spite of the rain, to add to my plunge into history.
Years ago, my parents and I visited the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. They have a lot of vintage aircraft there in the museum including a piece of land and some memorabilia of the Wright Brothers. It was interesting, but not as interesting as your experience being on the very land where the roots of aviation began.
Now I understand why North Carolina has “First in Flight” as one of the three choices for taglines on our license plates. But it stands to reason that they would also be honored in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio! Even though the first flight was in North Carolina they went on to develop the fully controllable Wright Flyer III in 1904 in Ohio!
I would have wondered about that license plate notation as well Barbara. Michigan’s plates are pretty simple, “the Great Lakes State”, as we’re the only state in the U.S. that touches four of the Great Lakes. I guess our famous inventor would be Henry Ford. The Wright Brothers liked being honored as native sons as to their great Wright Flyer III! I remember the exhibit there at that museum, but there were so many other planes, some hanging from the ceiling, that it was overwhelming and you didn’t know what to look at first.
When you think about how airplanes and automobiles have changed the way we live it is mind-boggling. I’ve been watching Anne with an E on Netflix, set in the late 1890s. The excitement and new perspective they felt when going up for a ride in a hot air balloon and could look down on the earth from above! And needing a horse, or a horse and a carriage to go anywhere. Trains and steamships were available for long distance travel, though.
I think I mentioned before about Eilene, the fellow blogger that delves into the history of all of her relatives and she has commentary and pictures of what a hard life they had, their transportation especially, with travel taking not hours or days, but weeks and months and the hardships endured along the way. Pretty amazing how far we have come!
I was at Cape Hatteras once as a kid. Woukd love to go back. Sorry about the rain. I know the feeling, when I have to book campsites 6 mos in advance and it rains the entire time its frustrating. Thanks for coming over to visit my walktober post.
It looks like it could have been worse – this week ‘ocean overwash’ from another storm has closed parts of the main route through Cape Hatteras. Glad we missed that! I enjoyed reading your Walktober post and hope to rejoin the fun next year.
🙂🥰
🌧️ 😊