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Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Photo: Milo Woodbridge Williams / Public domain · source

🏖️ Beaches

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Buxton, NC · Outer Banks

About

Cape Hatteras National Seashore stretches more than 70 miles down the Outer Banks barrier islands, offering wide undeveloped beaches, rolling dunes, and some of the best surf and shelling on the East Coast. Its centerpiece is the black and white spiral striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, which visitors can climb for sweeping views of where the Atlantic currents collide off the Graveyard of the Atlantic. With miles of uncrowded shoreline, world class fishing, and dependable wind, it rewards travelers looking for raw coastal wilderness rather than a built up resort strip.

Highlights

Climb the Cape Hatteras LighthouseSwim and surf the open Atlantic beachesVisit the Museum of the Sea at the Hatteras Island Visitor CenterSurf fishing and pier fishingWindsurfing and kiteboarding in Pamlico SoundBirding and shelling along the dunes

Getting there

46379 Lighthouse Road, Buxton, NC 27920

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From Pacific cliffs and Hawaiian bays to Outer Banks dunes, Great Lakes sand, and Gulf sugar, these are the beaches across the country worth the drive, the flight, or the ferry. Some you walk a mile to reach, some you take a boat or a ferry, and a few you just pull off the highway and gasp. The best beaches in America, coast to coast to coast.