2018 - Hike 9 - March 10th - Gateway National Recreation Area - Sandy Hook (NJ)

Trail Loop from 50 hikes in New Jersey (Falcon, 2009)

Posted by Chris 3/13/18

Basics:
Length - ~ 6.9 miles
Elevation gain - Minimal
Nearest city - Highlands, NJ
Difficulty - Conditions (cold, windy) were a little challenging and there was 3/4 of a mile walking on the beach but overall this was an easy hike.

The Day:
We headed out around 9 am and other than me getting pulled over on NJ-31 (sigh) the trip down was easy on NJ-31, I-78, I-278 and NJ-35.  We grabbed a pre-hike snack at Dunkin' Donuts.  When we arrived at the park it wasn't clear if we would be ok parking where the trail guide suggested since it said 2 hour parking.  Apparently this park is crammed to the max during the summer.  I called the visitors center and they said that parking there should be ok.  It was also very windy and cold at the start of the hike and for the first 1/3 of the miles.

Sandy Hook is basically a narrow spit of land with Raritan Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.  The trail loop we followed started near the lighthouse and went South down the bay side and came back on the ocean side.  It was a fairly obvious goal for a loop hike but it was nice having it plotted out in the book.  Scenic highlights included a sand bar that led out towards a pond (pictured below) and on the ocean side there were a lot of remnants of a Nike missile station and a radar site.  We saw people just 2 or 3 times on our walk and they were brief passings in the opposite direction which is always refreshing when you can literally see Manhattan looming in the distance on the Ocean side.

On the way home we stopped in Red Bank which neither of us had been to and we had some truly remarkable Mexican food at Señor Peppers.  YUM.





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