For years, people — including our own members — have been telling us we needed to go to Gunnison, the nude beach in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. But it was in New Jersey! Even getting out members out to the beach in Brooklyn (Coney Island) or Queens (Riis) was hard. Gunnison is an hour and a half drive from the city, and almost none of our members have cars, for one thing. And yeah, there’s a ferry that can take you part of the way by water, but only part of the way, and then you have to get a bus, and the line can be long, and…
And we never went. For seven years.
But this year we finally did, and as everyone predicted, it was pretty wonderful.
Gunnison is a weird place. It’s in New Jersey but on federal land (a former military base, it seems), which is why even though New Jersey is more restrictive about nudity than New York is, you can actually go fully nude at Gunnison but only topless at New York beaches.
And it’s absolutely packed on a sunny weekend day — easily a thousand people. Not all aging hippies, not all leathery sun worshippers or hipsters with lumberjack beards and body modifications; you’ll find those types, but really you’ll find every type. There were a lot of couples just spending the day together, work buddies hanging out, recent immigrants from two dozen countries…it was like the crowd you might see on the subway at rush hour, only a) friendly and b) not wearing any clothes. This isn’t Burning Man, where you hang out naked with tripping artists and free spirits and Silicon Valley billionaires and their aspiring model friends. This is hanging out naked with random regular people — your dental hygienist is there in the crowd somewhere, and the guy who stocks supplies in your office’s mail room, and the girls who work the registers at the supermarket where you bought the strawberries and pita chips and guac you brought with you to the beach so you wouldn’t starve. Your bus driver is there (literally: we booked a bus to take us there and back, and in between the driver hit the sand himself, and he couldn’t get enough of it: “Oh man,” he texted us, “it’s my first time here. I love that beach!”). Your high school math teacher is probably there somewhere, or maybe your elementary school principal. And no one’s embarrassed or ashamed. Everyone’s just chilling.
One of the reasons is that there are no cameras, or almost none — the culture there is very much a no-photos culture, which meant we got some side-eye when we took out ours to memorialize this event. Of course we explained our goal was only to photograph ourselves. But we get it: it’s a crowded beach and a photo that’s got us in the foreground might have who-knows-whom in the background. Out of respect for the crowd and its norms, we took very few pictures (by our standards) and so have only a handful to share.
But picture taking wasn’t the point. The point was that here was a spot within relatively easy driving distance of the city where all the city’s denizens could strip off every stitch and just be human together. And that was an entrancing discovery. Of course we knew we could do that — we get naked together all the time, and we love it. But we’re used to doing it surrounded by strangers who range from indifferent to judgmental, and who certainly don’t respond to our nakedness by getting naked themselves. This was like walking into Central Park and seeing everyone in the crowd completely naked, from grandmas to teenagers, every skin tone and body type, a thousand vulvas and penises, two thousand breasts, and not an unkind word or uncomfortable glance anywhere. It was truly inspiring.
Will we go back? Well, it is a long drive. And the summer’s almost over. But how did Molly Bloom put it? yes I said yes I will Yes.
Glad you made it and discovered first hand the pleasure and freedom my wife and I have enjoyed since 05. Hope you make it back.
Glad you were finally able to make it to my usual stomping grounds, which I like to call “The Outside of the Asylum” (if you know that literary reference). I like seeing the different locations in your blogs but it’s a different read when I know the location and have had similar visits, including doing the Times Magazine puzzles there (though usually I do the Ken-ken on that page).
My understanding of the military base story is that it was used as a missile testing site, being a peninsula with only one access point long enough to try out the three-mile range missiles, and it was the soldiers working there who first started relaxing on the beach naked on their breaks. When missiles with much longer ranges were developed the test site was no longer useful so they made it a park but kept the federal ownership and tradition of nudity. I really like that it was the military who established this freedom.
Is that a Douglas Adams reference?
Yes indeed! This is a reference to So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, the fourth book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy series. It contains a character who calls himself Wonko The Sane who, after discovering how-to instructions on a box of toothpicks, decided that the world was crazy, so he decorated his house inside-out, with wallpaper and bookshelves on the outside and brick and siding on the inside, for example. (I may have some details off, but the idea is right.) Over the front door on the inside is a sign saying “Asylum, Keep Out” and when he locks his front door he is safe from the crazy world in a house he calls “The Outside of the Asylum”.
I am reminded of this at Gunnison, which is bordered by signs saying “Entering Clothed Area”. The understatement of that is astounding. The clothed area is not just North Beach, it’s the whole rest of the Jersey shore, and with a few exceptions, a tiny percentage, the rest of the world. The signs don’t call Gunnison a nude area, just warn that you may encounter nude sunbathers; it’s everywhere else that’s a clothed area. And those in the clothed area may disagree, but I tend to think that we on the beach are perfectly sane but the people in the clothed area have too many hang-ups, conventions and even laws about nudity.
I like, especially, you second paragraph. It really made me smile. Thanks!
Just got back recently from Collins Beach in Portland, my first time ever at a nude beach. Really a great experience. Thinking to myself, this is the way it should be everywhere!
Totally agree with you, there should at least be designated nude areas on all beaches.
And parks
Glad you found a nude beach. Wish you could see what we have in south Florida at Haulover Beach near North Miami Beach and Sunny Isle Beach.
So good for you 😍
A perfect day out!
“No one’s embarrassed…” True most of the time.
Once I saw my boss & his wife at Gunnison sitting near me. No way was I gonna deal with that!
Found another spot very quickly.
Why not? They were comfortable naked, clearly; you were comfortable; you might have found something to bond about. (Ok, maybe not. But at least you didn’t leave the beach entirely. That’s something.)
So now you know what we naturists have been saying for a century.
You might be interested in an event in Times Square on September 2, called the Ultimate Freedom Concert. https://ultimatefreedomconcert.com
We know about that event and some of us plan to be there.
Excellent!
Also, the ferry’s not so bad. Take a look at a map to see how far west you went by car to get to a beach with a view of Coney Island.
Try the ferry, you’ll never want to use the road again.
Idk, it was a fun bus ride. 🙂
Was it a naked bus ride? That would be fun! (Certainly more fun than the boring buses I’ve been on!)
It could’ve been — the driver wouldn’t have objected. But as it happens, it wasn’t. Still was fun spending time with friends. 🙂
Welcome to the wonderful world of naked sand sun and salt water. You will be back, its very addictive
The ferry doesn’t take you part of the way by the water, it takes you like 98% of the way. The ferry goes right into Sandy Hook and then it’s a 5 minute bus ride. I’ve actually walked over to Gunnison (the nude beach) before after getting off the bus.
I remember they used to give out maps of the area once you got off the ferry. Maybe they still do? And then just follow the map and walk right over to Gunnision.
That seems unlikely — it’s more than a 5-minute walk just to get from the parking lot by the nude beach to the water! It can’t possibly be only a 5-minute walk from where the ferry drops you. But we take your point that it might be walkable (though maybe not so much if you’re carrying towels, umbrelllas, food, water, etc.). In any event, we’re happy with the experience we had. Maybe we’ll try the ferry next time, but this worked fine.
So glad you all had a great experience!
FYI, on a nice Saturday/Sunday in July/August, there could be as many as 5,000 people on Gunnison (that’s a stat claimed by the park)! I just finished my 25th season there (our last day was October 10), and I’ve seen it that crowded MANY times.
P.S. – I can see our flags in the distance in the pic taken from the back of Gunnison, so we were also there that day. I checked my records…Aug. 5 was my 22nd trip of the year, and it was a hot day. 🙂