An Autumn Experience: The Northern Outer Banks | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Everyone needs to take some time off, and get out of town just to clear out their heads, gain a measure of perspective. My time away from the various pressures of my various jobs is a golden time for me, and most necessary to keep on a level keel. These off-season retreats close to my home in Washington, County of Beaufort, are a fine repository of splendid moments, shelved away, waiting to be found.

    On this much needed respite, I spent 4 nights away from my home in the fine accommodations of a suitable resort. I rested, I worked and I took many pictures. Here in the remains of this article, I represent my time away in these images made of a close and wonderful place - at least for me.
    We begin in the Village of Corolla in the County of Currituck, where we see the locale of a local eatery: Above. And the Museum of the Wild Horses in Corolla's Old School House: Below.

    The Currituck Lighthouse is the centerpiece of this former fishing village, turned resort town: Above and below.

    Just north of the lighthouse in Corolla is the CAMA Sound Boardwalk, which leads out to the Currituck Sound: Above and below. I reported on this CAMA Sound Boardwalk experience last summer, when it was quite a bit warmer and much greener.

    The boardwalk that conveys the avid conservationist runs perpendicular to this marshy creek that eventually runs out to the Currituck Sound: Above. The boardwalk is an essential transport device for the otherwise curious conservationist, who would be unable to tromp out to the Currituck Sound without stomping through the watery swamp: Below.

    Just a smidge north from Corolla after US Hwy. 12 ends into the punky sand of this wild rolling dunes, and beach, where the wild horses roam: Above and below.

    The hard packed sand of the beach is accessible by vehicles at low tide, which provides the only earth-surface transportation to the beach front and many secluded luxury homes that dot the next 8 miles to the Virginia boundary. The Sunnybank Luxury Estate is the first one would encountered, the next community north would be Carova Beach, which adjoins the Virginia border. There are no road access points to the Commonwealth: Above. This undisturbed span of the island just north of the termination of US Hwy. 12 is still littered with the rooted debris of a dwarf oceanside forest: Below.