Outer Banks Scenic Byway

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Whalebone Junction

   Whalebone Junction takes its name from a whale skeleton that once stood here, and it is not much to look at now: an intersection and a few shops on a narrow strip of sand between the Atlantic and Roanoke Sound. But it matters, because this is the point where the roads from the mainland meet NC 12, the highway that runs down the Outer Banks, and from here you head south into Cape Hatteras National Seashore, with ocean on one hand and sound on the other.

   Read the complete Whalebone Junction write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Whalebone Junction is where the day begins. Next is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

2. 2. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

   Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, 198 feet of black and white spiral stripes that look like a barber's pole drawn by someone with ambition. It was finished in 1870 to warn ships off the shoals that stretch far out from the cape. This is the Graveyard of the Atlantic, where the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current meet and the shoals have claimed hundreds of vessels. The lighthouse is the answer that the age of sail gave to a very practical problem.

   Read the complete Cape Hatteras Lighthouse write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cape Hatteras Lighthouse comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hatteras Village.

3. 3. Hatteras Village

   Hatteras Village sits at the very southern end of Hatteras Island, where NC 12 runs out of land and the road continues only by boat. It is a fishing community first, with charter boats at the docks, tackle shops, small restaurants, and the sort of quiet streets where locals nod from their porches. The island has lived off the sea for centuries, from early settlers who salvaged wrecks and fished to the modern sportfishing fleet, and the museum nearby tells the story of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, where shifting shoals and storms wrecked countless ships.

   Read the complete Hatteras Village write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach Hatteras Village. Next is Ocracoke.

4. 4. Ocracoke

   Ocracoke is only reachable by water, and that single fact shapes everything about the place. The island is a long sliver of sand at the bottom of the Outer Banks, with one village, one main road, and an atmosphere of being slightly cut off from the rest of the country. Most visitors arrive by the free ferry from Hatteras, a crossing of roughly an hour, and the arrival is a small event: the boat swings into the harbour, the brown pelicans watch, and the village appears with its white-painted houses and a little lighthouse.

   Read the complete Ocracoke write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ocracoke, late in the day. Next is Cedar Island.

5. 5. Cedar Island

   Cedar Island is the end of the road, in a way that is surprisingly pleasant. It is a quiet, flat, marshy tongue of land on the far eastern edge of the North Carolina mainland, at the end of a long road through pine woods and salt marsh, and it faces the Pamlico Sound. Here the highway meets the ferry terminal, where boats leave for Ocracoke island, and the whole place feels like a pause between two worlds.

   Read the complete Cedar Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Cedar Island. That is the ride.