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It was the day after Thanksgiving and being that I live in Colorado full-time,
I usually have an "itch" to see the ocean when I visit. I had never been to Sandy Hook and made that my destination. |
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The sun was out but it was fairly brisk and chilly with temperatures in the 30's.
I pulled over one of the first beach parking areas in the lower portion of the peninsula to stand by the ocean in these photos. |
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I thought the official "Welcome to Sandy Hook" sign was kind of interesting.
If you read it carefully, it actually says "find a prickly pear cactus"! Wowwee!
I didn't see any cacti, but that is definitely a neat piece of trivia for New Jersey. If anyone has a legitimate picture of cactus found on Sandy Hook, I would definitely put it on CactusLovers.com being that I'm the webmaster! ;) |
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The Sandy Hook Visitor Center, which once served as a life saving and rescue station. |
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Here is a helpful map of the New Jersey shoreline areas.
Sandy Hook is located north of Long Branch in Monmouth County. It is the northeasternmost peninsula. |
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I walked a short while on the South Beach Dune Trail. |
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The historic lighthouse is located near Fort Hancock near the end of the peninsula.
Sadly, the lighthouse is open for viewing only during the weekend. |
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Here is the best view of the lighthouse! :) |
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Information about the lighthouse. :) |
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This particular sign showed the "progress" of Sandy Hook. At one time, Sandy Hook was an
island all to itself, but was filled into the mainland. Today, the lighthouse stands far off from the actual beach. |
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There are old gun batteries (for lack of a better term) that were built in the first half of the
20th century as a measure of defense against potential invaders into New York Bay. |
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More information about that. |
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I returned to the beach on the extreme northern part of Sandy Hook. From this point, one can easily
see New York City on a clear day. The Verrazano Bridge is the tall bridge to the left. |
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Walking around the beach. |
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That was the closest that bird allowed me to get to him! :p) |
