Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

From the thin band of barrier islands known as the Outer Banks, along the northern coastline, to the area around Wilmington and the Cape Fear Coast, North Carolina's beaches are a year-round destination. You can visit national seashores or wildlife refuges, go surfing, diving, fishing, hiking, bird-watching, hang gliding -- or just watch the waves. North Carolinians are proud that the nation's first national seashore, Cape Hatteras, is in their state, as is Roanoke Island, where the country's first European settlers landed more than 400 years ago.

For many years the Outer Banks remained isolated, home only to a few families who made their living by fishing. Today the islands, linked by bridges and ferries, have become popular tourist destinations. Much of the area is included in the Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout national seashores. The largest towns are Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, and Manteo.

These islands are steeped in history, mystery, and myth. The first settlers, remembered today as the Lost Colony, landed here in 1587, only to disappear without a trace shortly thereafter. Those who endured made their living from the sea, fishing and whaling, and frequently setting out in small boats to rescue sailors whose ships had foundered. They stayed for the same reason people flock here today: for the unparalleled beauty of the ever-changing coastal landscape.

In its gentler moods the ocean casts pearly shells on the wide, flat beaches and laps at the sand. In moments of fury, it lashes and churns at the dunes, gouging out channels and reshaping the shoreline. The ocean is forever resculpting these banks; Bodie Island and Pea Island (for example) are islands no more.

Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout offer two very different beach experiences. Cape Hatteras is a 70-mile strand of narrow islands connected to the mainland by a series of bridges and ferries, and bisected by a modern road that allows easy access to the shoreline. When the National Seashore was established in 1953, the small towns along the island were permitted to remain, so accommodations, supplies, and recreational opportunities are always close at hand.

Cape Lookout, a 55-mile span of three unconnected islands, is essentially a beach wilderness-as close as you can get to experiencing the coast as the original colonists. Because no bridge ever connected it with the mainland, it has remained undeveloped and relatively pristine. The only access is by boat, and the only accommodations are tents and primitive cabins.

Carteret County, with nearly 80 miles of ocean coastline, is known as the Central or "Crystal" Coast. It is composed of the south-facing beaches along the barrier island Bogue Banks (Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach, Salter Path, and Emerald Isle), three mainland townships (Morehead City, Beaufort, and Newport), and a series of small, unincorporated "Down East" communities traversed by a portion of U.S. 70 that acts as a Scenic Byway.

Wilmington and the Cape Fear Coast area, between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean near the south end of the North Carolina coast, are simultaneously a beach resort and a shipping and trading center. Artists, golfers, history buffs, naturalists, and shoppers will all find something of interest here.

In 1524 explorer Giovanni da Verrazano landed on what is now North Carolina's shore and wrote in his log that the land was "as pleasant and delectable to behold as is possible to imagine." His observation remains true five centuries later.