Climbing Bodie Island Lighthouse

By Cat Mitchell
May 14, 2021

Traveling south on Hwy 12 beyond the edges of Nags Head, the view opens into marsh grasses and shifting dunes. About six miles inside Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Bodie Island Lighthouse appears on the right. Its black-and-white bands show through the trees along Bodie Island Lighthouse Road before the full 156 feet of this Outer Banks landmark comes into sight.

The lighthouse standing today is the third one created to mark Oregon Inlet, after an earlier structure suffered from a bad foundation and another was lost to a Confederate bomb. Completed in 1872, it spent more than a century helping ships navigate before coming under the care of the National Park Service.

Together with Ocracoke, Cape Hatteras, and Currituck Beach, Bodie Island Lighthouse, pronounced body, reflects how difficult it was to sail along the Outer Banks, especially during the nation’s early years. During the 1800’s and early 1900's, mariners faced serious danger here without modern navigation tools. North Carolina’s coast is known for the shipwrecks scattered along both shore and seabed, left by bad weather, world war, and human mistake. That need for direction produced a lighthouse beam visible up to 19 miles offshore.

Becca Haque visits the Outer Banks every year with her husband and two children. She spent time exploring the lighthouse grounds and dock with her younger son, Noah. The 42 inch height limit had kept older brother Adam from climbing last year, but this year he was able to go up.

The source page includes attributed remarks from Becca Haque and Donny Osekre, a park ranger in his third year at Bodie Island and a former Washington, D.C. tour guide. Their comments highlight Adam’s excitement at finally meeting the 42 inch height limit, the family-friendly appeal of the climb, the restorative quiet of the lighthouse during a busy vacation, and the importance of honoring the hard work and bravery of the unnamed keepers who cared for the site.

Families will find the lighthouse and Bodie Island well suited for sightseeing. For those who do not climb, a wooden boardwalk crosses the marsh and leads to a dock with views of the surrounding water and wildlife. The house on-site contains a gift shop and ranger station, where climb tickets are sold and visitors can learn about other activities on the island.

At Bodie Island, visitors can go up the lighthouse at their own pace while taking in the natural views of Bodie Island, the Atlantic Ocean, and Pamlico Sound. The Bodie Island Lighthouse is typically open from the third Friday in April through Columbus Day (in early October). Climb times run every 30 minutes, beginning at 9:00AM, with final entry at 5:30PM. Tickets for climbing are available only on the day of the planned climb at www.recreation.gov by searching for Bodie Island Lighthouse. Prices are $10 for adults and $5 for senior citizens (62 or older), children 11 years of age and under, and the disabled. Daily ticket sales begin at 7AM on a first come basis. Ticket holders are asked to be at the lighthouse base five minutes before their scheduled climb time.

In 2021, full moon climbs of the Bodie Island Lighthouse were scheduled for June 24, July 23, August 22 and September 20, 2021. Tickets for those climbs were to be purchased at www.recreation.gov starting at 10 a.m. three days prior to each climb date. Because climb space is limited, educational fee waivers for school groups are not offered for Bodie Island Lighthouse climbs.

Cat Mitchell is a former Outer Banks Visitors Bureau intern and undergraduate at East Carolina University.