A year on Sandy Hook

Summer Beachgoers

Sandy Hook is one third of Gateway National Recreation area, a park that has three distinct sections regions across New York and New Jersey — Sandy Hook, Jamaica Bay, and Staten Island. Each “unit” has it’s own unique attractions, including active and retired military bases that underline the history of the parks.

As a New Jersey native the Sandy Hook unit is the most accessible given it’s the northern most part of the Jersey Shore, and you don’t have to endure New York traffic to get there.

During the summer months the beaches regularly fill up as cars fall in line to cross the Highlands-Sea bright bridge, and for good reason. The beach is one of the few not yet (and hopefully never) encroached upon by suburban development. If you block out the crowds of people, sound of radios, and skyscrapers looming just a few miles north, you might think you’re on an outer beach of Cape Cod.

In the heat of summer people visit the beach to enjoy their time in the sun but the peninsula draws a much different and more eclectic group of visitors during the offseason.

The Fall Run

Two fisherman look off into the distance as fishing boats chase schools of fish just offshore.

Early fall is when the the folks entering the peninsula trade beach chairs and sand shovels for fishing rods and waders as saltwater fishing heats up. The striped bass make their semi annual run up down the Atlantic coast causing a frenzy from Maine to North Carolina.

Family vehicles that once filled the parking lots become a collection of 4x4’s racing from one exit to another with rod tips dancing in the breeze. Text messages and phone calls ping up and down the beach sharing sightings of birds and fish breaking as the hope of landing a trophy fish radiates through the community.

Very few people converse on the beach during the fall run as each angler is looking to fulfill their own mission. Many have unapproachable, gruff appearances from nearly living out of their vehicles for 8 weeks. The fishing is usually best at first light and during the change of the tides, so the beach will show signs of life well before the sun crests the horizon and will continue late into the afternoon. No matter what time you drive onto Sandy Hook in the fall, I can guarantee you someone has already beaten you there.

A deserted public Sandy Hook beach  

One time driving out to the tip (the outermost portion of the peninsula) around 5AM I found a group of fisherman that had just finished fishing over night and were surrounding a camp stove, gearing up to be out on the beach again at sunrise.

One of the more entertaining occurrences of fall fishing on Sandy Hook is when the fish are out of reach of the beach fisherman and the boats that motor into the bay from the surrounding rivers are catching fish. The two groups of sportsman appear to have a distaste for each other as casts from the beach start to have a little extra umph behind them. Its a feeling of coming in second, you know you can win but your opponent was just that much more prepared — even if preparation in this case is thousands of dollars of fiberglass.

At the end of the day the hatred is only real when one group interferes with the other. There’s plenty of unwritten rules of the water, but over the years Sandy Hook anglers have come to find common enemies - commercial fishing boats (bunker boats) and offshore wind farms.

Sport fishing boat exiting the sandy hook bay heading for open ocean

A cold, sleepy beach town

December comes up quick and winter starts to grip the coast. The holidays approach and there are always a few hopefuls that stalk the beach looking for a fish that has mostly moved on. Boat traffic dwindles down to the odd party boat and commercial vessels bound for New York. On the main roads that loop around the peninsula the parking lots sit empty or closed entirely. Sunbathing is a distant memory as exposed eastern beaches are hit by a breeze that four months earlier would’ve been welcomed, now make beachgoers turn away and cinch their hoods.

The cold deters many, but there’s one group that starts to frequent the now deserted beaches. Sandy Hook bay is a wintering ground for a variety of species of seals who, for better or worse, have their own paparazzi. They bask on the sandbars and play in the breaking waves as if to mimic the children that are now sitting in classrooms. I would be amiss to not mention the movements to save the seals of the Sandy Hook bay, and encourage everyone to engage in safe viewing practices for your safety and theirs.

Opportunities for photography are plentiful in winter. The wildlife photographers take similar routes around the beaches as fisherman did weeks earlier, carrying long lenses and tripods to spot seals in a familiar areas. Some even hold out hope to photograph a snowy owl. The birds are said to visit the northern beaches of New Jersey during the winter months, but I’ve only seen a rare image.

During the winter months the sun rises are at more reasonable hours and groggy photographers emerge from their warm cars in soft light each morning, hopeful to capture something special. Carefully positioning tripods and finding interesting compositions, a relatively simple landscape presents endless possibilities - although fleeting as the lighting quickly becomes harsh in the morning hours.

An empty beach hut during a winter sunrise 

After the photographers cycle out, other groups start to emerge. In the winter of 2023 I personally spent a handful of Saturdays on the beach training for a half marathon. Running on the beach you get to see a new side of the sleepy town. Others jog past on the multi use path offering an affirming grin and wave acknowledging the absurdity of outdoor winter training when a heated gym would be more comfortable. You pass the odd dog walker where the dog is clearly more excited to be experiencing the beach than the owners, drifting off course to smell a scent unfamiliar and being quickly corrected by the hand at the other end of the leash.

Then there’s the true locals that are simply there to pass the time with no agenda. Some of those same 4x4’s that carried fishing rods sit in parking lots listening to radio broadcasts or reading the newspaper as if they plan to wait in that exact spot until spring comes.

Then there’s the true thrill seekers, the folks that aren’t afraid to get in the water to sacrifice comfort for sport. Surfers flock to the beach as soon as the surf starts to show promise. With the right forecast a flock of Toyotas appear concealing boards and wetsuits. The surfers are a much more cordial free spirited group than the fisherman that came before as they change into their wetsuits in parking lots and laugh at stories they share of past excursions and life events.

Surfer loses his balance riding a wave

Rounding out the year

The cold weather starts to let up around April each year and spring brings new but familiar life back to the shore. The seasons on Sandy Hook resemble more of a pendulum than a circle as anglers start to re-emerge first. Fishing embargo’s lift in early march and the fish rush back onto the New Jersey beaches chasing bait in April and May. The hopeful group of anglers have one last go at the beach before it re-opens for the summer crowds as memorial day welcomes the summer once again.

The common theme

I won’t conclude this with some deep message, because at the end of the day Sandy Hook is simply a place I’ve come to admire and a place where many walks of life frequent. It’s a resilient, beautiful beach that takes on so many personalities in a single year. It’s a place where I recreate and have found solitude not far from my home. Each season someone is walking out onto that beach hopeful of some grand mission, and that’s what brings so many of us back. I have been fortunate to triumph here and there and have been able to add a few images from this unique place throughout the seasons to my growing portfolio.

All of the photographs in this post were captured by me over the course of 3 years.