Island Beach State Park, New Jersey
December 17th, 2008 at 11:55am Under Main Content
You can access this Island Beach State Park by taking Route 37 east to Route 35 South to the parks entrance or you can reach it by boat access by going through the Tices Shoals around access area 7. You will have to anchor your boat by the bay and walk the short distance to the beach. Buses can enter Island Beach State Park for a fee (except for weekends and holidays) but such trips need to be arranged in advance with park managment. The Cup has each year?s winner engraved upon it and is on view in the lobby of the Island Beach State Park administration building. There is a real possibility that any one of the competing anglers may be fortunate enough to capture the Governor’s Cup.
Shaped by storm and tides, Island Beach State Park is a narrow barrier island stretching for 10 miles between the restless Atlantic Ocean and the historic Barnegat Bay. Island Beach is one of New Jersey’s last significant remnants of a barrier island ecosystem that once existed along much of the coast and is also one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches on the north Atlantic coast. The Emily DeCamp Herbarium is a collection of approximately 400 plants that have been classified and preserved, giving the public an opportunity to learn about the nine plant communities at Island Beach State Park. One of the main attractions of this herbarium is that the visiting public and scientists are able to handle and examine individual plants.
The largest of our island’s white sand beaches, it offers consistently good conditions for swimming, body-boarding, sunbathing, strolling and snorkeling. Located adjacent to the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, there is ample parking, along with food vendors, picnic areas, restrooms and showers. Hapuna Beach is the largest white sand beach on the island and is utterly gorgeous. The body surfing’s pretty decent (especially when the wind picks up) and when we went on weekday mornings it wasn’t crowded. Along the Edge, the road’s edge that is, we find the largest plant community. It is an every changing display of wildflowers with new seeds constantly coming in via cars, bikers, and any other traveler who works their way from one end of the barrier end to the other.
Two miles of ocean beaches offer swimming, beachcombing, sunbathing, surfing and fishing. The island’s bayside offers visitors the chance to explore secluded coves by canoe or kayak. Go fishing, rent a kayak and paddle through the mangrove tunnels on the bay side of the island. Take a walk on the nature trail and see the oak and palm hammock (a type of forest). Off shore fishing is great, even better is fishing off the pier with my 3 year-old at the state park, especially because you don’t have to purchase a lisence. This is the perfect place for beach bums.
The area offers some of the state’s best fishing, so bring a pole and catch lunch. Meet the passenger ferry at Garris Landing in the morning, and spend the day collecting shells and surf fishing on the deserted beach. Look for trails created by the rare red wolf, which is bred on the island. You MUST be actively fishing to be on the beach here. No picnics, BBQ’s, fires, frisbies, etc.
By Dave Jackson Add comment