‘The beauty of the seashore’ draws record numbers to Cape Hatteras beaches in January

More people than ever visited Cape Hatteras beaches in January as walks on the beach, shell collecting and reeling in a big fish replaced sunbathing and splashing in the surf.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore, with 67 miles of shoreline from Oregon Inlet to Ocracoke, recorded 86,991 visitors in January, breaking last year’s record by 5,000, according to a release from the park.

Escape from COVID-19 isolation contributed to the increase, said Dave Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina.

“More people are seeing the beauty of the seashore during the winter,” he said Friday. “You can pretty much drive from anywhere on the East Coast to the Outer Banks in a day.”

People took photos of sunsets, lighthouses and shorebirds. They cast lines from shore, trying to catch sharks and puppy drum. They scanned the beach after winter storms deposited shells of whelks, scotch bonnets and shark’s eye moon snails.

The park saw 2.6 million visitors during all of 2020 despite Dare and Hyde counties closing access to the beaches from March to May over virus concerns. The number was the highest in 17 years, Hallac said.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial also experienced a record with 10,949 visitors in January.

A woman who visited the tall monument last year told Hallac she came here to see the story of the first flight in 1903. It lifted her spirits during the pandemic, she said.

“A lot of people are looking for inspiration and hope here,” he said.

The seashore and the Wright Brothers National Memorial are part of the National Park Service.

Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com