North Carolina OBX,
A great getaway
My experience in pictures and video
After the summer season winds down and beach house rental prices are reduced the Outer Banks becomes a playground that can make you feel like you have the beach all to yourself.
The weather was wonderful, the ocean was warm and from all the fishermen I saw, the fishing was great. It was probably one of the most peaceful weeks I have enjoyed in a very long time. Basking in those beautiful barrier reef Islands off the North Carolina Coast is a getaway one can hardly ever forget.
Although I was there for only a week, I visited as many places as I could while still basking in the serene surroundings of sunrises over the ocean and sunsets on the Sound. I captured pictures and video everywhere I went and have assembled some of the highlights in picture albums here. All the pictures, graphics and art were captured or created by me. There are hundreds of web sites about the Outer Banks on the Web, many with beautiful pictures and stories which I recommend you visit yourself and there are so many things to see I couldn't possibly see them in only a week. The memories I captured are here for you to enjoy, from views from the top of Currituck Lighthouse to the grounds of the Wright Brothers Memorial.
THE ALBUMS: Throughout this page there are links to 6 albums of pictures. Each gives you a little piece of my trip to the OBX... They are as follows:
- SUNRISE PIX These are pictures of the sun rising over the ocean.
- SUNSET PIX These are a selection of pictures of the sun setting over the Sound.
- WRIGHT BROTHERS Pictures taken at the Wright Brothers Memorial.
- LIGHTHOUSES I visited two lighthouses. This album has picture of and around the lighthouses and views from the top of one of them.
- OUTER BANKS PIX An album of various scenes from and around the Outer Banks.
- OBX ART A few examples of my artist expression from the scenes in the Outer Banks
- THE VIDEOS There are a selection of video I captured showing interesting places in the Outer Banks.
RIGHT: Looking South from Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla with the ocean on the left and Currituck sound on the right.
Click HERE or the picture at right for lighthouse views of the Outer Banks from the top of Currituck Lighthouse and views around the lighthouse. Also see a couple pictures I captured of Bodie Lighthouse
The Outer Banks, known for lighthouses, the Wright Brothers First Flight, wild horses, sand dunes, shallow water, shoals, sandbars, beautiful sunrises and sunsets and lots of wind is a long thin stretch of barrier reef islands more than a hundred miles long made up of Carova beach, Corolla, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags head, Bodie Island, Oregon Inlet, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Mirlo Beach, Buxton, Avon, Hatteras and Ocracoke. But let’s not forget Roanoke Island either although that 16 mile island resides between the Outer Banks and the mainland. There are three Sounds, Albamarle, Pimlico, and Currituck with a selections of other small names water areas. The interesting thing about the sounds is they are very shallow ranging from six to ten feet deep ion most places.
The Outer Banks is most famous as the place where the legendary pirate Blackbeard supposedly met his end hundreds of years ago when he was residing on Ocracoke Island, an island accessible only by ferry, plane or boat and on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk among the Kill Devil Hills Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio created and perfected the mechanical controls so a motorized airplane could be successfully flown. They flew four times on that day on the Outer banks on those wind blown sand dunes. Roanoke Island is the place where the famous Lost Colony was last seen.
RIGHT: Looking north to the preserve where wild horses roam the dunes toward Virginia.
Click here for an album of various other Outer Banks pictures
The wind that blows on the Outer Banks was one of the reasons Wilbur and Orville Wright chose this area for their flight tests. I can attest to the wind as it can get nasty and strong which it was when I was there. Standing at the top of the dune on which the Monument is erected the wind becomes very intense at times. The Wright Brothers used that hill to test gliders before they actually tried their motorized plane although they did test the motorized plane once on the hill. it failed.
It is an awesome sight from the top of that hill looking up and down the beach. There is an eerie sense that gives you the sensation you are really standing in a very extraordinary place. It kind of gives you a shiver to know that the first successful human flight started there. If you think about what that means you will understand.
ABOVE: The Wright Brother Memorial looking from the landing point of the very first flight which was 120 feet on September 17, 1903. There were three more flights that day, each went a little further. Orville and Wilbur Wright alternated flying the plane. Previously to the flights, non motorized test gliders were launched from the hill in the background. The Memorial is sitting on top of that preserved sand dune. The stone in the picture where the people are standing was the starting point of the first flight. CLICK HERE OR ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO SEE THE ARRAY OF PICTURES I CAPTURED WHILE AT THE MEMORIAL. There are some funny pictures also.
In the northern most section of the Outer Banks stretching south from Virginia are the towns of Corolla, Sanderling, Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Bodie Island plus other assorted towns and communities. To go further south you cross a bridge to Pea island then take the ferry to Hatteras Island known as Cape Hatteras National Seashore. South of there you need to take another ferry to reach Ocracoke Island and then finally the Core Banks all the way to Cape Lookout, the fifth lighthouse south. There are other smaller islands there also as well as lighthouses in Ocracoke and Hatteras. . There are a total of 5 lighthouses that populate the area. I visited two of them, Bodie Lighthouse near Nags Head (seen at left) and Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla; pictures of the lighthouses and views around the lighthouses can be seen HERE.
North of Currituck Lighthouse the paved road ends and you must drive on the beach to reach the houses and communities to the North. I chose not to drive on the beach mainly because I do not have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and parking is not permitted for the general public along most streets so even walking was not convenient unless you actually resided close by. But, four wheel drives are the rule if you want to reach that section of beach, or, of course you can walk.
North of the Currituck Lighthouse is also the home of the famous wild horses. I read while there that there are about 90 horses roaming the dunes north of the lighthouse. That section of beach reaches all the way to the North Carolina/Virginia state line. There are walking paths you can explore. Highway 12 connects all the islands north and south.
CLICK HERE or the road signs above to see some video traveling along route 12. What better view of the beach than from the road that takes you there?
These pages feature my photography and video of just the few places I was privileged to visit in the week I was there. I will certainly go back and explore more as it was a very fascinating vacation spot.
Although there is nightlife up and down the beach with a selection of restaurants and night spots both on the beach and on the sound side, this area is mostly beach houses large and small featuring an array of perks such as private pools, hot tubs, recreation rooms with pool tables, foosball tables, ping pong tables, sports bars and even elevators in some houses. Outside, a lot of the houses have basketball hoops, and full volley ball courts in the sand, even full tennis courts. There are places to rent for the modest of wallets and of course in Corolla, you can indulge in large spacious mansions on the beach.
One such area is just north past Duck in a community called Pine Island. I toured one of those homes on the beach and let me just say this, I could have stayed right there for the rest of the year.(Beach view below.)
If you really want to have a great party vacation entice a group of people to throw in a few bucks, rent a large beach house and go party for a while. Rates are high during the summer months but when I went, the third week in September, the rates are low and even the largest of homes are affordable for a week.
The most amazing sights are the dawn on the ocean and dusk on the Sound. If you catch just the right days, you will see the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets you can imagine. I did capture many pictures of both which are here in albums you can browse.
It was quite an experience capturing the sights and sounds of the area. I fell in love with The Outer Banks that September week. I have assembled a selection of the some 2000 pictures I snapped while there and also have posted a few selected videos. if you have been there once or a hundred times, you can always browse here to relive what you probably experienced before. In my humble opinion you can never get enough of the beauty of this North Carolina coastline.
Below, see and hear the ocean at sunrise in the Outer Banks. It is very mesmerizing, Enjoy!
Links to all the picture albums here are at the bottom of this page. I also created a few art pieces inspired
from my trip but this experience is less about the art and more about the quiet and serene state of this play land. It is unfettered with decay and spoil and doesn't have the smell or sense of more commercial beaches and ocean resorts. It does have that sense of wilderness, uncharted and unsoiled. It is clean and fresh even though Man has fully developed the area. There are few high rise hotels and most buildings are 6 floors or less. Yeah, you can go to Myrtle Beach and whoop it up but is that what a vacation is all about? To me it is about re energizing yourself from the every day stressful nature of our lives. To say I had an awesome time would be an understatement. Through my pictures It is my hope you were able to get a sense of what I experienced there. For those interested, I utilized my point and shoot Canon sx110 camera. That is all I had for the pix and videos.
One final note about the people of North Carolina. To say they were friendly and giving would be a less than a fair way to describe my experience. Those I met in the Outer Banks were wonderful and very accommodating. I learned that North Carolina would also be a great place to live. …Frank*