This Land, Your Land

Correction: We've re-set the first link to go to the news release and corrected the date of Columbus Day.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse opens to climbers for the season next Friday, April 16, the National Park Service announced this week. The season runs through Columbus Day, October 11.

It will cost $7 - or $3.50 if you're younger than 12 or older than 65 - to climb the 248-step iron spiral stairway (below) to the top of the tallest brick lighthouse in North America at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Tickets will go on sale daily at 8:15 a.m. and climbing tours will begin at 9 a.m., allowing up to 30 people in every 10 minutes. Ticket sales close at 4:30 p.m. in the spring and fall, and at 5:30 p.m. from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

"The opening day of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will continue to be a 'fee-free' day, as it has in the past, for local community members to climb the Lighthouse," the NPS news release says.