City: Buxton, NC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: Cape Point

Description: Four-wheel-drive motorists may enter the beach at the end of Cape Point Way on ramp 44. Here the Outer Banks juts out into the Atlantic in a wide elbow-shaped curve near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The beaches in this area offer some of the barrier islands’ best surf fishing. Two rules of the beach: Do not try to drive on the beach in anything but a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and be sure to let the proper amount of air out of your tires before traversing sand. For those not driving on the beach, park on solid ground near the road and walk over the ramp to a foot trail. The path begins at the base of the dune. At the edge of a seawater pond, you’ll catch a glimpse of the remains of the shipwreck Altoona. Built in Maine in 1869, the Altoona was a two-masted, 100-footlong cargo schooner based in Boston. It left Haiti in 1878 with a load of dyewood bound for New York. On October 22 a storm drove it ashore near Cape Point. Lifesavers rescued its seven crew members and salvaged some of the cargo, but the ship was buried beneath the sand until uncovered by a storm in 1962. The sea has broken the big boat apart since then, but you can still see part of the bow and hull beneath the waves.