Hatteras Island Visitor Center — Attraction in Hatteras Island

• We visited on a Thursday in late December 2023 (after Christmas). • There is a relatively large parking lot and we were there before they opened at 9AM. We explored the outside of the lighthouse and the visitor center/park store. • The bathrooms are located outside the visitor center in adjacent building. These were opened before the store was open. • We entered the store when it opened and got junior ranger booklets as well as some merch. When we visited it looked like the store was smaller than normally as part of the store was blocked off. Wonder if they haven’t order new merch for the next season yet and were consolidating space with what they had left. There was still plenty of stuff specifically for the Hatteras Lighthouse. • We then went over to the Museum of the Sea. This is where the park ranger was at the time, and they had the junior ranger booklets here as well (same as the Bodie Light station Junior Ranger). It’s also where to turn everything in to get your badge (same badge as the Bodie Light Station). The NPS Cancellation Stamps are also located here as well as in the visitor center. They also have a cool wall of NPS badges from NPS sites all over the country in one big display. I’ve only seen one other park do this and that was Big South Fork in TN. • We explored all of the exhibits in all the different rooms of the house. It was really cool and you could easily spend just an hour in here. There were very few people when we started but after about 30 mins or so it kind of got really crowded. There is a room immediately to the left when you entered that looked to be a kids activity area. The kids spent most of their time here sitting at the table working on the Junior Ranger book. • If we had more time we could’ve explored more of the trails here and it would be nice to climb up the lighthouse at some point but it was not available at the time of our visit. One of the displays talks about how they moved the lighthouse previously from its original location and that they were planning to...

I talked to a Park Ranger about the $50.00 Off-road vehicle permit. I asked him why they charge here at the Cape Hatteras National Sea Shore, but the Off-road vehicle permits in the Cape Lookout National Sea Shore are free. He struggled for an answer and then came up with that they are under a different administration to which I answered; no you are not you are all part of the National Park Service, which is administered by the Department of the Interior. At this point he struggled to come up with another answer, this time he suggested that you have to pay for ferry service to get to Cape Lookout, which is true but I reminded him that those ferries are privately held non government subsidized entities, so in essence his argument was invalid. Can someone from NPS explain to me why a government entity would charge a fee for one area and miss the income by not charging the same fee for the same activity in another area? Trust me, knowing the Federal Government's penchance for selling our Parks and Public lands to privateers, they would not miss an opportunity, therefore I assume that someone (most likely a congressman's relative) is making bank on these "fees" I LOVE MY COUNTRY, IT'S MY GOVERNMENT I...

This is a nice place to visit and learn about the history of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is also a great place to learn about nature and safety. Sometimes you can spot wildlife around during times that are not as busy. There are deer, turtles, snakes, lizards, and birds to name a few living things you can see. Make sure you take time to visit where the lighthouse used to be and learn about how and why it was moved. Also be sure to learn some safety tips for swimming/wading in the ocean...rip currents are...