If I had to pick the most memorable part about the Outer Banks it would be a hard choice between the sunsets and the wild horses. Both were breathtaking. The sunsets because of the open view off the bay, uncluttered with man made structures, displaying painted colors across the sky and the wild horses because of the unadulterated beauty of seeing these animals in nature, outside of fences and farms. Thankfully I don't have to pick just one. Both stole my heart.
For those of you who might like to know, all my photographs are taken with my Canon Rebel T2i. The lenses I used most of the time on this trip where my 18-55mm and a 55-250mm. During daylight I used a polarized filter and sunsets and sunrises used a magenta filter to enhance the colors. I highly recommend using filters.
I told my hubby that one morning we were waking up at dawn so I could catch the sunrise. I'm so glad we did, especially on this morning. There was a line of clouds right across the horizon that blocked the sun from completely saturating the sky and sea with light. Instead it threw amazing colors, shadows, and rays of light across the sky. Although my teeth were chattering and my eyes were heavy lidded, I am so glad we were up to witness the beauty of God's watercolor painting across the sky that morning.
The wild horses don't really populate the entire island. We were in the town of Corolla where I believe (from the many websites I searched) is where most of the wild horses of the Outer Banks reside. But we had to really search for them still. We went on a wild goose chase over the sandy beach in our SUV to find these lovely creatures. My friend Mandy spotted our first wild horse sighting over one of the dunes, near a large home. He was contently munching away on some grass, all by his lonesome. We kept our distance, but he didn't seem to pay us any mind.
Munch, munch, munch.
After we saw our first horse we became giddy with excitement. We had to press on to find more. We went into some "neighborhoods" looking for them. I say "neighborhoods" in quotes because there are no streets, only frequently used sandy paths and a scattering of oversized houses. Near these homes was where we found more horses grazing near a waterway.
We were so thrilled with our finds that we almost missed these guys meandering along one of the sandy roads. We stopped the car and jumped out trying to snap some quick photos of the pair.
Then all of sudden they started trotting towards us. Their pace started to pick up, which gave us a little fright, so we decided to return to the safety of our vehicle. This was their territory after all. But before I hopped back in the car, I took this photo. It is one of my favorites from the trip.
This is the magic of the sunset I was telling you about. We perched ourselves near the boathouse this day as I thought the sun dipping down between the arches of the bridge would give me a beautiful photo opportunity. And it did.
Just amazing colors. Nothing like I've ever seen before.
Well that's all the photos that I thought were blog worthy from the two hundred I ended up taking. I hope that you will find yourself one day in the Outer Banks, with the blue sky breeze blowing wind through your hair, only worry in the world is the tide going to reach your chair (from the words of the great Zac Brown Band). It's definitely a place like no other.
