Cape May National Wildlife Refuge: 2 Mile Beach Unit

It was a cool but sunny morning and Noelle, Sierra, Mom and I decided to take advantage by heading out for a walk at the Two Mile Beach Unit of Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. We made the short drive from my parents' house and headed out for our walk. We brought our binoculars along, just in case we spied some interesting birds.

From the parking lot we walked a short path through the dunes

to the beach and passed some pretty pink flowers in bloom along the way.

Then we retraced our steps and found another, longer trail. The longer trail also led to the beach,

but along the way we saw some goldenrod in bloom with lots of insects on it.

We retraced our steps back to the car where we ate a snack. Then we headed out on a boardwalk

that led to a wetland area.

We saw lots of aquatic birds swimming around in the waters of the wetland and got to use our binoculars a bit. Then we headed back

to yet another trail. This trail followed an old road through the dunes.

We passed several butterflies along the way,

including a beautiful common buckeye

and a monarch.

We passed an off-limits area used by the Coast Guard

and then hit the beach.

The beach is closed at certain times of the year to protect piping plovers, but its open right now and so we decided to walk the beach back to the car.

We saw lots of gulls on the beach,

but not much in the way of other birds. There were also some interesting shells. We found 2 whelks,

some razor clams,

jingle shells, and lots of others. It was a great way to spend a fall morning. After our walk we headed over to Wawa to get some lunch; hoagies and Tastykakes.