We have spent most of the last 10 days along the coast of North and South Carolina. More great National Park Service sites along the way and lighthouses to keep us busy.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Flag Day at Fort Sumter
The ferry to Fort Sumter from Patriot Point passes right in front of the USS Yorktown as it makes its way into Charleston Harbor.
from our campsite - Buck Hall Recreation Area on the Intracoastal Waterway where we stayed three days to be close to Charleston. Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge across the water.
Five miles of sandy dirt road brought us to the "Brick Church" built in 1768 with a very old cemetery.
old flagstones on the church floor
Hampton Plantation State Historic Site - historic rice plantation with magnificent old trees.
We made a nice two-mile hike around the site.
NORTH CAROLINA
Site of a signficant battle in February 1776 - North Carolinian Loyalists fought North Carolinian Patriots (no redcoats yet). As a result, North Carolina was the first colony to vote for independence.
Monument to the role women played during the Revolution.
Moores Creek was the site of a critical bridge the Loyalists had to cross to reach the coast. The Patriots were waiting on the other side.
Now for the LIGHTHOUSES:
We like to visit lighthouses and have visited many of them over the years. We had never been to Cape Lookout National Seashore and its iconic lighthouse so it was at the top of our list for North Carolina. It is really quite special and one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier island systems in the world. It can only be reached by ferry or private boat. We have learned to arrive in places early in the day for the best experiences so we caught one of the earliest boats and made it to the lighthouse with the park volunteers. We were the first of the day to climb the lighthouse and take in the awesome views. We saw some of the wild horses on Shackleford Banks but they were too far away to get photos.
Cape Lookout Lighthouse
Brian proved he was at least 44 inches tall to be allowed to climb so up we went.
We stopped in nearby Beaufort to visit the Old Burying Grounds:
The earliest legible headstone is dated 1758.
Grave of a girl who died at sea and her bodywas put in a barrel of whiskey rather than be buried at sea. When back in the colonies, she was buried in the barrel.
the "Lost Colony" mystery still has not been solved.
Our last visit to Cape Hatteras was in 1993 with our kids. We spent three days camping
and exploring.
We took the ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island to see this lighthouse.
Back on Hatteras Island, we stopped at the site where the Hatteras Lighthouse stood when
we climbed it with our kids in 1993. By 1999, beach erosion brought the water to within 60 feet of the 1870 structure so it had to be moved 2,900 feet to a new location over there . . .
An amazing feat of engineering moved this 210 foot tall lighthouse over the course of 23 days to
its present location, unharmed. To learn how they did it, read this:
Bodie Island Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Reflected in a puddle after last night's rain:
Not in the national seashore, but Currituck Beach lighthouse is one of the famous ones in the area. It was left unpainted to distinguish it from Hatteras and Lookout:
We couldn't visit the Outer Banks without another visit to Wright Brothers National Memorial. The centennial of the first flight in 1903 brought an addition to the site - a sculpture replicating the iconic photograph taken on that day. Note: climbing the sculpture is allowed but we chose not to.
Sculpture of the man who took the famous photograph
Seen while geocaching:
Early cotton press near Florence, SC
"Screw Pin" geocache
This also claims to be the littlest church - we have seen that claim before.
Kris climbed a tree to reach this geocache.
Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, NC
"Roxie the Dinosaur" travel bug visits Futuro House in Frisco, NC - Hatteras Island
Yes, there is a geocache there.
