Frommer's Family Vacations in the National Parks

Chapter One

Driving along Hatteras and Ocracoke islands on a narrow strip of sand with the ocean close on both sides, you may think that the Outer Banks are a geographic miracle. Why should this razor-thin rim of sand persist far out in the sea? How wild it seems, a land of windy beach with no end, always in motion, always vulnerable to the next, slightly larger wave. There's so much here to see and learn, and so much solitude to enjoy. You're like a passenger on an enormous ship, and unpredictable nature is the captain.

Oddly, many people don't see Cape Hatteras this way. When they think of the Outer Banks, they think of Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills, towns where tourist development has pushed right up to the edge of the sea and, in many places, gotten really ugly. Most visitors to the national seashore come only for the weekend, and just from the nearest states, to escape the damp heat of the Southern summer. On the Outer Banks, the wind almost always blows, so it feels cooler than inland. But people should come from all over the United States, because the parts of the Outer Banks protected by the national ... read full excerpt from Frommer's Family Vacations in the National Parks ebook