harkers island visitor center

There is not a lot to do indoors, but if you cannot get out to the lighthouse you can at least see it with the telescope. The staff are really nice too. The trail is well kept and easy to traverse. At the end it takes you about 150 yards out into the water. You get a really good view of the land and water there.

Folks were nice at the center. Lots of info about the wild horses on Shackleford Banks and a lot of interesting brochures to pick up. This is where you get your tickets for the ferry.

Our first trip was to shackleford banks and we came through this visitors center. Very clean and nice rest rooms.informative staff and nice gift shop.It was here we learned that if we came back and went out to cape lookout where the light house is After April 15th they had a mule train service to take you out to where the beaches are for shelling. This was great as I limited in how much walking i could do.We planned to use this on our return trip in may!

There is a book/gift shop, plenty of informational pamphlets, clean restrooms, a friendly staff and a view of the lighthouse from the shore. The grounds are well-manicured and host shaded picnic tables. Nice place!

The visitors center is well worth the stop. Small coastal museum and don't forget to ask to watch the film in the crystal coast. Staff in the visitors center were very friendly and helpful! We were encouraged to take the passenger ferry (large, fast pontoon boat) over to the island where we could climb the Cape Lookout Lighthouse or walk the beach and pick up shells. We paid $15 per adult. The captain of the ferry did not appear to know how to pull into the doc to park. He and another captain worked together to "port" the boat properly and tie down, it was a struggle for them both. After a miss communication of which ferry we were to get on and 45 minutes later still not on a ferry we asked for a refund. The NPS needs to get their act together on scheduling the ferrys and hire some locals to captain the boats.