Governor Murphy had announced that it was likely New Jersey was about to be put under lockdown so we decided to take a trip to the beach while we were still allowed. Stu and I visited Sandy Hook in October where we saw whales and dolphins but we hadn’t taken Tom and Izzy so thought we would go for an afternoon of exploring – and it was a beautiful sunny day despite being freezing cold.

Sandy Hook is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and used to be an army fort. It is most northern beach in New Jersey.

We parked up near the lighthouse and went for a short walk. Unfortunately the lighthouse was closed because of Covid but Tom and Izzy occupied themselves by playing on a pile of old ammunition! We also followed some disused train tracks to an old battery.

^{Sandy Hook Lighthouse}

Next we headed to North Beach. The great thing about Sandy Hook is that the beaches are really sandy and you can see the skyline of Manhattan in the distance. The shipping route is quite busy as well so often there are huge tankers and cargo ships sailing passed.

^{North Beach, Sandy Hook}

After a wander we drove back down the peninsular to one of the beaches near to the entrance so the kids could play on the rocks. It was far too cold to go for a paddle and unfortunately no whales or dolphins were spotted this time.