Quote:
Originally Posted by nopirates
they're going to use sandy as an excuse to shut it down. the dunes are gone, so the naked bodies won't be hidden from sensitive eyes. this is part of the foundation for changing the policy.
the other reason is that, no matter how much we tried to police it, a persistent group of losers would sneak into the dunes to take a shit or jerk-off. unfortunately, you don't need many of these to raise a case for prohibiting the nudity that has been present on the beach since the 60s.
and don't expect gunnison beach at sandy hook to be open this year either. the damage is going to keep the beach closed for some time. unfortunately, no humans on the beach means that nesting seabirds will have the run of it instead of hiding in the dunes as they usually do to avoid human contact. since this is a protected area, if the birds get the beach, the people will not. this info comes from a friend-of-a-friend that was on a cleanup crew at sandy hook recently. the rangers were discussing this exact scenario.
so those of us that enjoy the lighthouse and gunnison will have to keep our pants on this summer, and maybe forever.
|
Those are good questions, but here are some of the differences I see between the two beaches:
1. Gunnison is used by literally thousands of nude beach goers on a good summer day. Not sure about Lighthouse Beach, but I always thought it was significantly less.
2. Gunnison has a bathroom and shower area that is fairly close to the beach. It's only a little bit of a walk and it's mainly due to the fact that Gunnison has so much distance from the dunes to the shoreline. As a result, I don't think I've ever seen someone try to vacate their bowels in the dunes.
3. It seems to me like over-the-top sexual behavior at Gunnison has gone down dramatically over the years. I haven't seen any lewd behavior there in years. And I don't think I ever saw any of that kind of behavior in the dunes.
4. Gunnison has two to three lifeguard stations on the nude portion of the beach throughout the summer.
5. Gunnison is so isolated from the roadway that there is literally no chance that someone is going to accidentally see a nude beachgoer no matter how much erosion the beach has experienced due to the recent storm.
6. There is plenty of parking for Gunnison. While the main lot fills up relatively quickly, there is an overflow lot about 1/4 mile down the road that people can park at.
The wildcard could be how the rangers and park service actually feel about Gunnison. From what I can see, it's not a problem beach for them in that it seems to be very self maintaining. I also think that beachgoers generate a huge amount of income for Sandy Hook National Seashore because of all the people paying the $15 daily visitor pass for cars. It seems like they would be cutting their own throats to cut off that funding.