Sandy Hook National Park--wake up while it's dark!

I've been promising myself that I was going to get up for the sunrise on Sandy Hook for months.  However, I have the coziest bed on the face of the Earth, and sunrise is early!  But an unusually tranquil weekend and compounding guilt woke me up without an alarm at 4 a.m.  Off to the beach I went!

There was not a soul to see all morning, at least the human kind.  Should you try this at home, please move slowly through the park, the deer are constantly crossing the road. 

Sandy Hook's North Beach.  With a little snow still on the sand and the light just cresting over the horizon, it felt like being on another planet.

Pretty good surf today, but nothing like we've had over the course of the winter.  Some day I'll get the guts to run out to the beach when it's super stormy...

I intended to take my tripod and a couple of different lenses.  In an early morning rush to beat the sun, I didn't grab half of what I had intended, but I did play a bit with the long exposure. 

The super surreal part about North Beach is the view (albeit cloudy this morning) of the City. 

Thanks for letting me have a whole national park to myself Sandy Hook!

The other advantage of being the only person on the island is there was no one there to see me rolling around on the shore.  Sandy sandy business.  Taken with my iPhone right before my fingers stopped working.