By Sarah Fertsch
Staff Writer
Tucked away on the north end of Sandy Hook, within the Gateway National Recreation Area, you’ll find Gunnison Beach, New Jersey’s only nude beach. There the motto is, “get naked or get lost.”
If you go there expecting supermodels and swingers, you’re in the wrong place.
Bodies of all colors and sizes line the beach. A few friends are tanning under the sun (they won’t have to worry about tan lines), and a couple are tossing a football along the tideline.
More modest personalities enter the ocean and, once they are covered by deep water, take their bikini tops off and the people on the sand cheer.
Claire, a woman in her 60s from Elizabeth who prefers that her full name not be shared, visits Gunnison Beach every weekend. She says that she loves the community she’s found at Gunnison, unafraid of embracing “the beauty of God’s creation.”
Claire and her two girlfriends who, like many women at Gunnison, go topless, but keep on bikini bottoms, explained the unspoken rules of the nude beach.
You’ll draw more attention with your clothes on than without them. Also, it’s acceptable to wear clothing on your first visit, but if you come back a second time fully clothed, you’ll get some dirty looks.
“Gunnison is special because it’s a nude beach, so if you don’t wanna strip, go enjoy another spot,” said Claire.
Other rules relate to exposure. No cameras are allowed on any basis. Don’t litter, don’t bring your children, and don’t play loud music. These norms make Gunnison one of the quietest beaches on the East Coast.
Thirty years ago, curious beachgoers from Atlantic and Cape May counties didn’t have to drive two hours to “take it all off” on the beach. Higbee Beach, located just outside of Cape May in Lower Township, was considered a nude beach until local governments, concerned about the morality of their beach town, made clothing a requirement, not optional.
However, in some spots, you can still find skinny dippers. Older beachgoers in particular will enjoy Higbee Beach while completely nude if there aren’t many people around, but when more people, especially families, set up their chairs and umbrellas, nudists will cover up out of respect.
According to a 2018 story by The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Amy Rosenberg, “this is Higbee Beach 17 years after a ticket written by Lower Township Capt. Martin Biersbach for public nudity found its way to the state Appellate Division, and nudist history, when that court ruled that townships could enforce ordinances against public nudity on state-run land.”
The official rules changed, but not necessarily people’s behavior.
“We have never been the kind of people to abide strictly by rules,” said George, a man in his 70s from Cherry Hill. “My wife and I always came down to Higbee a couple times every summer, and when that dumb law passed, nothing changed.”
Higbee Beach actually holds a lot of different unofficial titles. It’s considered a dog beach, a gay beach, a hippie beach, an anchor-your-own-boat beach, a horse beach, and even a haunted beach. Yet it’s not considered a swimming beach, according to the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, which manages the Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area as a habitat for migrating birds.
There are plenty of trails to explore with lush greenery and beautiful rocks. Higbee Beach is fairly deserted in the summer because most tourists opt for Sunset Beach a couple miles away. There’s no beach taggers and no lifeguards. Most visitors know to give other beachgoers distance so they can strip, play with their dog or hop on their boat.
“Just because something is official doesn’t make it true,” said George. “Higbee will always be special and I am thankful that other people love it just as much as I do.”
