Tour of lighthouses offers exercise, facts

It's hard to beat the view from the tallest vantage point.
By ANDREA SACHS
WASHINGTON POST
Stash the compass, mute the sonar and take a lighthouse tour of the Outer Banks, an easy day's drive along the coast.
Starting from Corolla and traveling south, the first stop is the Currituck Beach Lighthouse (Route 12, [252] 453-4939, www.currituckbeachlight.com; $6), a 162-foot unpainted-brick beacon that the strong (or foolhardy) can climb.
As you'll hear repeatedly from the guide at the door and the folks filing out, 214 steep steps lie ahead. Oh, just do it.
Completed in 1875, the lighthouse is in amazingly good condition (like the other three on the tour, it's still in operation), and the adjacent Lighthouse Keepers' House, built in 1876 but largely ignored for years, is currently being restored.
For now, lighthouse buffs will have to make do at the Museum Shop, which will leave you wondering how you ever lived without a lighthouse-shaped birdcage before now.
With its 156-foot tower encircled by three white and black bands, the Bodie Island Lighthouse (it's pronounced "body"; [252] 441-5711, www.nps.gov/caha/bodielh.htm, free), about 40 miles south, is one of the Outer Banks' most photographed icons.
t's particularly pretty at sunrise, when the misty woods surrounding the property cast a photogenic halo around the structure.
More to see
Just north of Oregon Inlet, on the sound side of Route 12, the lighthouse, dating to 1872, is closed to the public (though the keeper's quarters, which house a ranger station and visitors center, can be toured), but it's worth a quick stop before another 40-mile drive south to Cape Hatteras.
Huff and puff your way up the 208-foot, 133-year-old Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, ([252] 995-4474, www.nps.gov/caha/lh.htm; $4), the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States. Sound like pure bluster?
Then start climbing the 268 stairs. The reward: panoramic views of Pamlico Sound, the skinny green strip of "inland" Hatteras and the ocean, including the harrowing point where the Gulf Stream collides with the Labrador Current, which forced wayward ships into the dangerous Diamond Shoals sand bar.
You can also see the ghostly circular imprint that marks the lighthouse's old roost before it was moved 2,900 feet in 1999.
Then chat up the Park Service volunteers, who can tell you about the light beacon range (24 nautical miles), markings (black-and-white diagonal stripes) and the time a guy was palpitating and sweaty after climbing to the top.
"I thought it was because he was out of shape or afraid of heights," said the volunteer. "Instead, he was nervous because he was about to propose to his girlfriend."
The lighthouse visitors center is a small but fascinating museum that covers such headline topics as U-boat sightings and shipwrecks, plus a better-than-science-class explanation of the Fresnel lens.
About 40 miles south, where Hatteras Island dead-ends and Ocracoke Island picks up, is the 180-year-old Ocracoke Lighthouse (off Route 12, [252] 928-4531, www.nps.gov/caha/ocracokelh.htm; free), the oldest functioning lighthouse in North Carolina.
The ivory tower can't be climbed, but it's still a sight to behold, even if it is a little askew.
Legend says the lantern room is off-center because of poor planning, but even a small blemish can't dim Ocracoke's light.