New England Lighthouse Treasures

During the summer after the sun sets and a full moon rises, romantic moon lovers can climb 257 steps to the top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to gaze at the moonlight.
Due to safety concerns within the dark Tower and space limitations in the Lantern Room, only 30 moon lovers will experience the Blinking Beam of light sweeping out to sea and the radiant reflection of the newly risen full moon on the ocean.

The National Park Service has scheduled two Full Moon tours at 7:30 and 8:30 pm for this evening. The next Full Moon Lighthouse Tour may be September 26, 2007 if scheduled. Tickets go on sale two days before the event and checking the News Releases of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is recommended when visiting the Outer Banks!

Cape Hatteras Light was built to mark the hazardous Diamond Shoals, the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” and guide mariners away from the treacherous low-lying Outer Banks. Due to coastal and storm erosion, the endangered “Barber Pole” Tower was moved 2,900-feet inland placing the Lighthouse 1,600-feet from the shoreline at the colossal cost of $9.8 million in 1999.

Four years later, Hurricane Isabel cut a new 2,000-feet long inlet about 9-miles Southwest of Cape Hatteras Light severing the towns of Hatteras and Frisco for two months. The Category 2 hurricane also carved away 770-feet of land protecting the Lighthouse when the storm swept ashore on September 18, 2003.

Currently, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse exhibits a Flashing White Light every 7.5 seconds illuminated by a DCB-24 Aerobeacon 191-feet above sea level to a visible range of 24 nautical miles. For more information about America’s tallest Lighthouse, please click on the photo of this post.

Interesting side note: The Lighthouse Keeper climbed 268 steps to light his lamp whereas visitors need to climb 257 steps to the balcony of the Lantern Room to see the moonlight!

For Map Directions, please visit the Google Map of Cape Hatteras Light

Technorati Tags: lighthouse, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Moonlight Tours, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Full Moon, North Carolina

This entry was authored and posted by Debbie Dolphin on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 3:49 am and is filed under Open House. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Comments may be held for moderation, and I reserve the right to delete inappropriate or off-topic comments.