Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse wears the most recognizable paint job in American waters - a black-and-white candy spiral on a brick tower rising about 198 feet, the tallest brick lighthouse in the country - and it guards the most feared water on the East Coast: Diamond Shoals, the shifting sandbars off the cape that wrecked ships in such numbers the coast earned the name Graveyard of the Atlantic. The tower of 1870 did its work so close to the ocean that the ocean eventually came for it, and in 1999 engineers performed one of the great preservation feats of the age, jacking the entire 4,800-ton lighthouse onto rails and rolling it 2,900 feet inland over 23 days without a crack. It now stands safely behind the dunes of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, ringed by wild beach, salt marsh and the villages of the mid-Banks.

What you actually see

• The spiral daymark - the black-and-white barber-pole tower at full height.
• The 1999 move path - the marked route of the great 2,900-ft relocation.
• The keepers' quarters - the museum of storms, wrecks and lightkeeping.
• The national seashore - wild Atlantic beach running miles either way.

When to go

April to October suits the seashore, with early autumn the local secret - warm water, thinner crowds and the best surf-casting. Summer is family season on the beaches; winter is windswept and moodily empty.

Honest expectations

A major restoration has kept the tower closed to climbing for several seasons, and it remains closed through 2026 - check current status before promising anyone the view; the grounds, museum and beach still make the stop worthwhile. Hatteras is a long drive from anywhere, which is exactly its charm.

Nearby

Ocracoke by free ferry, Pea Island's birdlife and the Bodie Island Lighthouse.