In March 2002 Eliza and I went for a drive to North Carolina to help my parents move into their new home there. Of course at the time, I wrote about it and shared the photos too, but I wanted to share this story about being at the top of the lighthouse.
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is easy to spot from pretty far off. As we were making our way north on the second day of our trip back from my parents new house, we tried to stop at each lighthouse on the way. Currituck is one of the few lighthouses that you can actually climb to the top of on the Outer Banks.
Making your way to the top is actually fairly interesting. You have to navigate, as expected, through a gift shop selling various North Carolina and Currituck trinkets in order to get to the stairway that leads to the top. You then have to navigate through that same gift shop on the way back down.
Of course, we picked up a few things though I can’t remember what. A few OBX stickers more than likely. Oh, and a hat. Which I have a photo of me wearing, that I will not share here. I’ll spare you.
On top of Currituck you can see both the inlet, called Currituck Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean. The view is stunning at only 158 ft. I say only because, while lighthouses are not all that tall, replica Eiffel Towers are fairly tall (550 ft.). And I’ve been to the top of one of those recently.
What the replica Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas did not have was a strong wind. Currituck did. Such a strong wind, in fact, that there were multiple warnings about the wind being around 60-80mph at the top. I think you can tell from the photo on the right that the wind was strong. Strong enough to put me, at around 220 or so pounds, up on my toes to stay facing it. The warnings were warranted.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse is a beautiful lighthouse with a rich history. Visit it some time.