Rocky Neck State Park and Beach in East Lyme, CT

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day weekend without either a torrential downpour or sweltering 85 degree heat, and luckily this year we had the latter.

After displaying my patriotism by way of food, I slapped on some zinc oxide, and it was off to Rocky Neck beach.

I always get excited when visiting a new beach, because they all have their own unique characteristics and waterfront landscapes, and Rocky Neck did not disappoint.

The only real downside were the crowds. We waited in a line of cars for about 35 minutes to get into the park, so if you are visiting Rocky Neck on a sunny weekend, try to get there by 10:30 AM.

The frustration of traffic though was quickly forgotten once we made it to the beach.

How eerie is it to see such clear blue water in Long Island Sound?!

Growing up in Fairfield, I’m used to murky shorelines filled with questionable oceanic deposits, so it was an unexpected treat to find such clear water along the Southern coast of Connecticut.

There is also a really incredible boardwalk that stretches the entire length of the beach.

The nice thing about this boardwalk, is rather than being entirely in the sun, it takes you through wooded areas, which offer a nice shady escape not easily found on most beaches.

As you can tell by my skin tone, I don’t have much patience when it comes to lying in the sun, so I took quite a few boardwalk breaks throughout the day.

The boardwalk also takes you out along a charming little estuary.

Below Michal watches a family of crabs along the bottom of the river.

A few other pros and cons:

PRO – the sand is really soft (not rocky–despite the name).

PRO – there are ice cream trucks located at BOTH entrances to the beach

CON – with so many people, one of them is bound to piss you off (a guy threw his bottle of coke into the estuary right in front of me, and I snapped).

PRO – the bathroom and changing facilities are clean

CON – certain areas of the beach are extremely narrow, so on a crowded day expect to overhear lots of other peoples conversations, and vice versa.

PRO – besides the beach, Rocky Neck offers hiking, camping, picnicking, and bike trails!

Camping trip anyone?