Hunting Island State Park

We went camping last week to one of our favorite places, Hunting Island State Park. (Feel free to click on the link to learn more about it in case I don't beat the subject to death in this post.) We love it because the campground is right on the beach, and the 200 sites are very shady. Even though that's a lot of sites, the beach is never really crowded. It's a great place for nature lovers, but there's not a lot to do (other than swim, sun bathe, and enjoy the great outdoors).

The only major drawback (IMHO) is the darn mosquitos! They will just about carry you away if you're not careful, and since our little one is allergic to them, we didn't spend much time around the campfire.

For the first several years we visited, the lighthouse was closed for repairs, but in '07 it was open again. We enjoyed the 167-step climb to the top with Grammie & Grumps this year (who camped in the site across from us in their moho).

The interior cast-iron stairs are just beautiful. In these two photos, I'm looking up. Notice the steel reinforcements that have been added to the original stairs.

In the second photo, you can see the iron rings that support the landings of each segment of the lighthouse.

(My beach photos did not turn out well but hopefully with some editing I'll be able t post them later this week.)