Why the Outer Banks will rock your face off

At 5:00 a.m., I was hanging out in the parking lot with my Marine Biology lab notebook and camping gear. I stood there waiting for the rest of my BIO 412 classmates to show up, trying not to move too much because it made the spinning in my head worse. (I knew I would probably be sleeping most of the van ride to North Carolina, so I had gone out and gotten my drink on.) I shivered, wondering vaguely how long it would take for AU Safety Services to investigate a report of a drunkard camping out in the parking lot, when other students began to arrive, yawning and lugging camping gear.  Once all the gear was loaded in the vans, Doctors Posner and Saunders, two of the AU Biology department faculty, began the drive.  We were on our way!

Between being subjected to Tom’s awful taste in music approximately seven thousand fifty six times, I managed to take some awesome pictures of our trip. Enjoy!

Camp Awesome: We came here for taxon identification, sleep, and snackage.

At 11:00 p.m. the last night, 30mph gusts came out of nowhere and ripped our tents down.  The poles of two tents were left snapped and useless.

Even 15-foot tall sand dunes are futile attempts to prevent the erosion that barrier islands experience naturally.

We went kayaking in a salt marsh and I spotted a duck. I was able to get close enough to take this sweet pic right as it took off.

The Cape Hatteras Light Station. It is 198 feet tall, and you must climb 257 steps to reach the top!

The view from the top was insane! It took me three minutes just to stop hugging the wall and stand by the edge to take this picture.

The entire climb up, I had a deathgrip on the railing while trying to look like I wasn’t having a claustrophobic / heights freakout.


The Littoraria snails will climb the Spartina marsh grass to escape predation by crabs below. They can hold on even as they sleep by secreting a sticky substance onto the spot and just hang there, sleeping.

We came across this huge fish skeleton in the salt marsh. I took a picture with my hand next to it to set the scale for how huge this thing was.

We wanted such a complete specimen for our lab back in Ohio, so we wrapped it in trash bags and stored it in our lunchmeat cooler.


Once you get the chance, go check out the Outer Banks! But whatever you do, don’t feed the Laughing gulls! They will stalk you forever if you do.