• Brown Pelican taking off.

    Cape Hatteras

    National Seashore North Carolina

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    New off road vehicle (ORV) regulations are now in effect. Please check here for information on how to get your ORV permit More »

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Places

Along the over 70 miles of the nation’s first national seashore from Nags Head to Ocracoke are fishing villages, historic structures, and tiny cemeteries that have helped shape the unique history and culture of the area. Visitors and locals alike often find their favorite places here, even if it is simply a spot on the beach where the pounding surf, the cry of the gulls and the whipping wind conjure up images of a past that has made the seashore and its places what they are today.

Did You Know?

This artist's rendering shows the U.S.S. Monitor foundering in a storm off of Cape Hatteras in December 1862.

The U.S.S. Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras during a storm in December 1862.  The wreck's location was a mystery until 1973 when a research vessel found the ship 16 miles off the cape in 230 feet of water.

In 1975, the Monitor  was named the nation’s first National Marine Sanctuary.