January Beach Excursion Part 1: Hampton Beach State Park

It's January, so we thought we'd take an excursion to the beach! Going to the beach in winter might sound strange (to those in the Northern Hemisphere at least), but the beach is beautiful at all times of year, and in the winter we have it almost all to ourselves (no flighting to find a parking spot!). Plus, we had a day off from work on a 45 degree day ... which deserved to be celebrated in some way. So, we headed out for a walk along a few of New Hampshire's beaches.

The beaches in New Hampshire are all relatively close to each other, so we managed to visit three beaches in a single morning. This post will focus on our visit to Hampton Beach State Park and posts about our time at North Hampton Beach and Jenness Beach will follow soon.

Despite living just a few short miles from Hampton Beach, I don't think I had ever been there before. I know we have driven through the town a couple of times, but to be honest in the summer it is so crowded that we try to avoid it and tend to stick to the beaches that are a little further north (which are still crowded but are at least closer to home). However, today the beach was decidedly uncrowded!

We parked at the southern end of the beach, where there are some nice sand-dunes and grasses next to the water, rather than the (mostly boarded up for the season) souvenir stores, motels, and fast food joints a bit further north.

It was a bright sunny day with a brilliant blue sky. The warm weather and recent rain had melted almost all the snow, so it is almost hard to tell in these photos that they were taken in winter instead of summer (the giveaway is the lack of people!). Our daughter enjoyed playing in the waves (in her snow boots!) and some brave souls even entered the water to go surfing.

The other people we met on the beach all commented on what an idyllic day it was - and it really did feel that way with the great January weather and the nice quiet beach. However, although it was warm and sunny, it was really windy too, so we still got cold pretty quickly, and we decided to head back to the car after half an hour or so, to check out some more beaches further north.

Hampton Beach is a really long, sandy beach and we only walked the southern end of it. As we drove north we noticed that there are lots of nice (new-looking) facilities, such as bathrooms and changing areas, along the whole length of the beach, so I imagine it could be a pretty convenient place to come swimming in the summer. We will have to come back again when it is warmer and explore the rest of the beach!