Tuesday, October 20, 2026 Cape May, New Jersey

Tuesday, October 20

We leave this sunny  53 degree morning and head southeast for Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey.  We cross into New Jersey around 9:30 and travel across the southern part of the state.  

 Lots of small towns, rural land, farms and a surprising number of vineyards. 

We aim for Cape May Lighthouse which is a part of Point State Park.  Beautiful lighthouse built in 1859 and standing 157 feet tall.   There is also a Keeper's house and an old oil house where fuel was once stored. 

An old lifesaving boat from the late 1800's is in the gardens.

Across the parking lot is a coastal viewing platform which today is part of the annual Cape May Hawk Watch.  Today is rather windy, so we don't see a lot of birds in the short time we are there, but there are spotting scopes and folks with giant camera lenses, along with a naturalist keeping watch and tallying sightings.  Yesterday's number was over 1000 hawks as the birds come down the coast on their annual migration. 

We spot a bald eagle soaring high above and mute swans and ducks in the nearby pond. We are late for some of the other migrators.   We chat with a few avid bird watchers before heading into town to a Visitors Center to get a map and better idea of the lay of the land.

Cape May is a very old town with lots of history.  At the Visitor's Center there is an exhibit about the Revolutionary War period which included  the naval Battle of Delaware Bay and Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet.  Cape May was important in imports for the colonies and in observation and defense of coastal water. 

 In 1878 there was a huge fire which burned most of the town, so many of the current building are Victorian era and quite lovely.  Many have the widow's walk atop, in which people supposedly kept watch for returning fishermen's boats.  (Wish I'd gotten better pictures.)

A canal runs through town connecting the Delaware Bay and Cape May Harbor on the coast, and providing mooring for hundreds of boats.

Greg's mother has fond memories of working here at a resort during her teen Summers and it is still quite a vacation destination.

Next we visit South Cape May Meadows Preserve, operated by the Nature Conservancy.  We walk the trails there which include a long board walk through wetlands, a beach trail and others. There are still fenced areas on the beach which protected nesting seabirds until a few months ago.

View from a bird blind

I ask someone about the tall feathery grass that is everywhere and she says it is called fragmite -said with a frown.  It is an invasive species only killed by seawater and as the area becomes dryer it is taking over.

Cape May "diamond"

We stop by Sunset Beach next, which has the remains of the experimental concrete ship  S.S. Atlantus, built during WWI.  We also join some others in searching the beach for "Cape May Diamonds" which are small translucent quartz pebbles.  

There is an old WWII tower nearby also.  Built in 1942 when fear of a German attack on the east coast was real, this tower was a part of a network of towers that served as lookouts and also artillery aids.

We head to Belleplain State Forest campground in Woodbine, where we get a campsite with electric for the next two nights.  Spacious wooded sites with lots of squirrels.  And nice hot showers!

 This trip changes my mental images of New Jersey which till now consisted of the New Jersey Turnpike, Industrial Elizabeth in the north, and Atlantic City beaches.