September 2024 we took a vacation down to Cape May in New Jersey. One place that we wanted to visit was the Cape May Lighthouse and Park. When visiting, you want to plan at least 2 hours in your schedule. There’s plenty of free parking in their parking lot with a few handicap spaces.
All activities at the park are FREE except for going inside the lighthouse and touring it. You can walk the grounds for free, walk the nature trails, enjoy your own brown-bag picnic lunch at one of picnic tables, walk up onto the beach and sit…visit their little indoor museum and so forth. Throughout the year they host educational programs and events there too.
The little musuem is held in a separate building. Inside we saw a few turtles, a snake, various bones from fish, seashells and other things from the area. It’s basically for educational purposes. It’s inside and air-conditioned. It’s small, so you only need to allow 10-15 minutes in your schedule if you plan on seeing it.
We enjoy walking, especially on various walking trails. We spent 30 minutes walking on one while at the park. There’s a small body of water right off of the trail. We saw a few ducks, swans, herons, egrets and other shore birds in the water and lounging around it. Take your binnoculars if you want to see them up close and personal. The trail is a very easy walk.
There’s a wooden boardwalk that you can walk on to read information plaques that give you information about the area and some of the animals that call that area home. You’ll find a few benches to sit down on to people watch and if you want to grab some nice photographs…you can stand up on the wooden boardwalk to obtain those.
If you’re looking to shop you’ll find a little gift shop at the lighthouse. They don’t offer much but do have your standard t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, post cards, and other trinkets and souvenirs. If you need a little snack…such as candy, chips or a bottle of water…you can find that there too. Like I said, very small area with very few offerings.
My wife and I had a great time. We go down to Cape May a lot…but it had been a few years since we had actually visited the Cape May Lighthouse. We stopped in to see what changed and were surprised that they upgraded and added a few new things.