4 Best Sights in Cape Lookout National Seashore, The North Carolina Coast

A walk—or 4x4 journey—to the south tip of Cape Lookout on South Core Banks feels like standing on the world's edge. The island is watched over by a 169-foot, double-walled lighthouse built in 1859. The structure withstood retreating Confederate troops' attempts to blow it up to keep it out of Union hands (they stole the lens instead). With its white-and-black diamond markings, the beacon continues to function as a navigational aid. A small museum inside the visitor center on Harkers Island tells the story of the lighthouse from its first incarnation in 1812. Anyone 44 inches or taller may climb the tower's 207 steps from mid-May to mid-September, although renovations are underway with a scheduled 2025 reopening. A private ferry, Island Express Ferry Service, runs between both Beaufort and Harkers Island to the lighthouse and rents 4x4 Kubotas ($150/half day) that allow you to explore the entire island.   The National Park Service offers 23 rustic cabins on South Core Banks for an overnight experience. Camping is also allowed on the beach. Either requires reservations via Recreation.gov.

This coastal "ghost town" is like nowhere else on the southeastern Atlantic coast, and the few thousand people that make it here each year are stunned to realize it exists.

Inhabited from 1753 until the early 1970s, Portsmouth had 685 permanent residents at its peak in 1860, making it one of the largest settlements on the Outer Banks. It was a "lightering" town, where ships heavy with cargo had to unload to smaller boats that could navigate the shallow Ocracoke Inlet. But the Civil War and the dredging of a deeper inlet at Hatteras were the beginning of the end for the town. By 1956, there were 17 inhabitants; the last two left in 1971. Today, the public can tour the one-room schoolhouse, the Methodist church, the post office and general store, and the turn-of-the-20th-century lifesaving station (a multiroom Coast Guard station), each of which has been restored following the devastating flooding of Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Guided tours are available June 1 to September 1. Bring food, water, and bug spray (the mosquitoes could carry you away). Portsmouth Island Boat Tours runs a small passenger boat from Ocracoke.

Wild, wooded, and undeveloped, this 7½-mile-long barrier island, the southernmost part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, is made even more magical by myriad seashells along the shore and about 100 free-roaming horses. Folklore offers two reasons for the Banker ponies' presence. One tale claims they swam ashore from a long-ago Spanish shipwreck, but some locals say early settlers first put these horses to pasture on the island. The island hosted various settlements in the 1800s, but storms drove residents inland. Today, gravestones here and there are the only remaining evidence of the people who lived here. Island access is by kayak, personal watercraft, or ferry only, from Beaufort and Harkers Island, and although primitive camping is allowed (at no fee), there are no amenities aside from composting toilets.

White sand beaches, blue-green waters, and a tall lighthouse mark this quiet beach at the southern tip of Cape Lookout National Seashore. A boat is the only way to get here. Passenger ferries leave from Harkers Island and Beaufort, while passenger and vehicle ferries leave from Davis and Atlantic. Land on the sound side, then walk across a path to the beach, where you'll be greeted by a long beach strand full of seashells, including large whelk shells. In season, you can also climb the lighthouse tower or tour a museum in the keeper's quarters. Amenities: toilets. Best for: solitude; sunrise; sunset; swimming; walking.