Ferry

Cape Lookout National Seashore

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The ferry pilot told me that this is the best view of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, so there you go. Seeing wild horses was quite simple at Shackleford Banks, as there aren’t many places to hide. And the horses don’t seem to mind photos while they’re grazing.

A few decades ago, I came through the Beaufort Inlet on a boat to resupply. The docks and front street of Beaufort NC—not to be confused with Beaufort SC—haven’t changed much, although everything is quite a bit busier and pricier now. I don’t remember seeing any horses, although we knew they were there.

Unlike the rest of the Outer Banks to the north, Cape Lookout’s barrier islands have no paved roads. A few fishermen and visitors bring cars over on a vehicle ferry from Davis to Great Island Bay, and there’s another vehicle ferry from Atlantic to beach camping on North Core Banks. There’s also a passenger ferry from Ocracoke to the north end of this seashore at Portsmouth Village. And concessionaires run ferries both from Beaufort to Shackleford Banks and from Harkers Island—where I left from—to both Shackleford and the lighthouse. Yes, that’s five different ferries from five separate locations to five disconnected destinations, depending on your plan.

The seashore is quite casual, parents with babies, school groups, many folks bringing their dogs, tourists looking in the light keeper’s house, campers, sporty teens, and some older folks appreciating the natural beauty while reminiscing. The beaches have many shells, and you are allowed to take a few home. Many boats cruise around the bays from nearby marinas tucked into the coast’s rivers, and I heard several small planes going overhead. I drove up when the Harkers Island visitor center opened, got a ticket, hopped off on Shackleford, hopped on the next boat for the lighthouse, hiked around a bit and returned to find some seafood. Of course there are miles of beach to walk. Very pleasant.

San Juan Island National Historic Park

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Most of our border with Canada is a straight line from Minnesota to the Pacific, except for Canada’s Vancouver Island, which dips below the line. When the border was negotiated, the treaty put the border through the “middle of the channel”, i.e. the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. Except where the San Juan Islands are in the middle, and then which is the main channel becomes a matter of interpretation. San Juan Island is much closer to Victoria Canada than to the mainland, so the British claimed it. But the Haro Strait is larger than the rest of the channel, so the Americans claimed San Juan Island too. Nobody really cared much about the sparsely populated islands, until an American squatter killed a British pig for rooting in his garden. Then, both sides prepared for war.

English Camp in the northwest is lovely, set on a well protected bay amidst large oaks, hemlock, and madrona trees. Well supplied from Victoria, the British created a formal garden above, kept calm and carried on. The Americans—actually the Robert’s Rules of Order writer—built a fort on the exposed southeastern point, conducted rigorous drills and maintained strict discipline. Large flag poles were erected at both camps. At the time, the US was entering the Civil War, so the government sent General Scott to negotiate peace. Fortunately, the border dispute was settled diplomatically.

There is an interpretive center at the American camp, while the English camp visitor center was closed when I visited late last September. Regular car ferries run to San Juan Island, with pleasant views along the way. Friday Harbor is between the English and American camps, 9 and 6 miles respectively, and has nice restaurants and more.

Lake Chelan National Recreation Area

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The Stehekin River in Washington state naturally formed a lake before emptying into the Columbia River, but a small dam was added to raise the water level. To get to the park, you have to take the 1.5 hour ferry ride from the resort town of Chelan (shuh-LAN, rhymes with man), which can be done as a day trip with layovers from 1.5 to 6 hours, or else you have to hike in on the Pacific Crest Trail or some other route, likely overnight through Grizzly territory. The ferry is the best way to get a look at the whole, long lake, including a large stretch of fire damage. I recommend bicycling, but the ferry company doesn’t allow bicycles on some boats, perhaps to aid their bicycle rental business at the arrival dock. Wenatchee Washington is a 45 minute drive south of Chelan, but its hotels are half the price.

Along with Lake Ross, this park is part of the North Cascades Complex, three distinct contiguous park units established simultaneously, so technically I visited all three by EV when I stopped at the main visitor center. The remote village of Stehekin is worth spending some time exploring, as they have a museum, a lodge with restaurant, a couple gift shops, a traditional apple orchard with free-pick-your-own in the fall, and an excellent bakery. Lodging, campgrounds and seats on the ferry do fill up, so reservations are wise. There are also very scenic hikes along the glacial river and above the glacial lake. Due to lack of easy access, the park has a relaxed old-timey feel to it, where folks wave as they pass on the road and people seem to slow down to enjoy themselves. But don’t miss your return ferry, which leaves promptly.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

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There are three main outer banks—‘OBX’—islands in the park: Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke, from north to south. Each has a lighthouse: Bodie is currently open for climbing, Hatteras is tallest and Ocracoke is oldest. I brought my kayak and stayed at Oregon Inlet campground across from the Bodie harbor which has a kayak launch, but there was some construction, commercial traffic, and strong, cold winds in May. Also, since the islands are so long and thin, it’s easiest to see the main sights by driving the 70 miles, including the free vehicle ferry to Ocracoke.

Hatteras island is the biggest, with several year round towns and thousands of residents outside summer, when hundreds of thousands visit the OBX. The road gets damaged in storms, and wind often blows huge drifts of sand onto the road. Many of the residents have anti-Biden signs, which is counter intuitive, since he is trying to defend them from the Climate Crisis, which will steal their land, take over their businesses and even invade their homes. But they ignore the science, the melting glaciers and ice caps, the strengthening storms, the sea level rise and the increasing erosion. The lighthouse has already been moved many times. The OBX is one of the fastest growing real estate markets on the NC coast, worth tens of billions of dollars, even as homes are falling into the sea. Money appears inversely related to intelligence.

The delightful nature walk above is Springer’s Point Trail at the southern tip of Ocracoke nearer Cape Lookout, the northern tip of which can be visited by passenger ferry leaving from Ocracoke’s picturesque Silver Lake Harbor. There are some ‘banker’ (OBX) horses on Ocracoke, but they’re penned, not really wild.

Fort Matanzas National Monument

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The shaded grove interests me, more so than the fort. In the southeastern US, a grove like this is called a hammock, a Native American word that entered European languages with two meanings shortly after Columbus visited around 1500. Hammocks, the sleeping nets hung between trees, date back to the Maya civilization in Central America, and the Taino in the Caribbean would have been the first to introduce those as ‘hammocks’ to Columbus. Perhaps the grove meaning stems from ‘net’ as a way to describe the interlaced canopy of branches. Or, perhaps an explorer pointed at a grove asking what it was, and a native answered “that’s my hammock”. The wonderful brief boardwalk hike covers a great variety of species. I saw a great horned owl, ghost crabs, eastern red cedar, sand live oak, holly & myrtle and the burrow of a gopher tortoise.

458 years ago and long before any fort, the inlet here—with its strategic opening to the Atlantic—was named Bahía de Matanzas, or ‘Slaughter Bay’. The French had settled on the Florida coast just before the Spanish, and in 1565 Fort Catherine sent 250 French soldiers down here to seize St Augustine, 15 miles up the inland waterway. But a storm intervened as their ships were crossing the bar, and they were shipwrecked. When they were discovered, the Spanish slaughtered them.

283 years ago, the British, under Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia, also tried to seize St Augustine, laying siege to to Castillo de San Marco for 39 days in 1740. The Spanish improved their defenses in 1742, including building Fort Matanzas to guard the southern approach. That same year, the British returned and the fort fulfilled its mission by firing warning shots across the inland waterway, helping prevent another sneak attack on St Augustine.

The fort itself is small and unremarkable, but it has a commanding view of the narrow channel. Unless you have your own kayak, you have to take a gasoline-powered ferry to get there (no ferry Monday or Tuesday). Of all the places to convert a boat to electric, this seems perfect. The ferry has a large flat roof that could charge up by solar and it only runs a short distance on a limited schedule. But for all the talk about “saving nature forever”, not enough practical steps are being taken to protect wonderful natural habitats like this from the climate crisis.