Lighthouse Challenge Weekend From Point Pleasant: 8 Stops Close to Home (Oct 17 and 18)

One weekend a year, the lighthouses and lifesaving stations up and down the Jersey coast all open at once, and families race around collecting a sticker at every stop. That weekend is this one: the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey runs Saturday and Sunday, October 17 and 18. The whole Challenge is 16 sites from Sandy Hook to Paulsboro, but you do not have to do them all to have a great day. Eight of them are close to home, and one is right in Manasquan.

Here is how we would do it with kids. Every time and price below was read on the organizer's site, lighthousechallengenj.com, on October 12. Check it before you head out.

The basics

Hours: every site is open 8 am to 6 pm Saturday and Sunday.
Cost: $10 to register, at whichever site you visit first. No signing up ahead. You get this year's souvenir, a book of stories from the American Revolution along the Jersey coast, and a sticker at each stop to fill it in.
Climbing: optional. Some lighthouses charge to climb, and kids 11 and under climb free with an adult.
Night climbs: Saturday only, 6 to 8 pm, at Twin Lights and Tuckerton. Get there by 7:30 if you want to go up.

Start in town

Squan Beach Lifesaving Station

All ages, $10 Challenge book, outside and in, In Town (Manasquan). At Ocean and 2nd Avenue in Manasquan, a few minutes from Point Pleasant Beach. Register here and you have your first sticker before the coffee is cold.

Sea Girt Lighthouse

All ages, $10 Challenge book, inside, Nearby (Sea Girt). At Ocean Avenue and Beacon Boulevard, just up the coast from Manasquan. Two stops done by breakfast.

North: Sandy Hook and Twin Lights

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

All ages, $10 Challenge book, outside and in, Shore day trip (Sandy Hook). The oldest standing lighthouse in the country, first lit in 1764, and the star of this year's Challenge for the country's 250th birthday. The organizer's own tip from a mom who did it with two young boys: save your questions for the park rangers here. Her kids were shocked to learn it is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US.

Spermaceti Cove Life Saving Station

All ages, $10 Challenge book, outside and in, Shore day trip (Sandy Hook). Also on Sandy Hook, on Hartshorne Drive between Lots D and E, so it is one trip with the lighthouse.

Navesink Twin Lights

All ages, $10 Challenge book, inside and out, Shore day trip (Highlands). Up in Highlands, 200 feet above sea level, with a view over Sandy Hook to the New York skyline. Saturday night climbs run 6 to 8 pm, which makes this a great last stop.

South: Long Beach Island and Tuckerton

Barnegat Lighthouse

All ages, $10 Challenge book, outside and in, Shore day trip (Barnegat Light). On Long Beach Island, in Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. It was relit on January 1, 2009, exactly 150 years after it was first lit.

Barnegat Light Museum

All ages, $10 Challenge book, inside, Shore day trip (Barnegat Light). In the town's old one-room schoolhouse at East 5th Street and Central Avenue, where the lighthouse's original first-order Fresnel lens is on display. Worth seeing right after you climb the tower it came from.

Tucker's Island Light

All ages, $10 Challenge book, inside and out, Shore day trip (Tuckerton). At Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen's Museum, with a Saturday night climb from 6 to 8 pm.

Tips for doing it with kids

The organizer's Family Fun page has a coloring page for every site to print before you go, and tips from a mom who did the whole thing with two young sons. Our favorites from her list:

Keep a running count of the steps you climb and guess the weekend's total.
Trunk snacks after every stop.
Let the kids navigate and spot each lighthouse first.
Ask the volunteers everything: how many steps, how many bricks, any shipwreck stories.
Guess how old each place is, then ask when you get there.

Want to see them all?

The other eight stops run from Atlantic City and Cape May up the Delaware Bay to Paulsboro. Our friends at Get Outside NJ have every stop, north to south, and the NJ Lighthouse Map shows them all on one map. If you finish all 16, tell the volunteers at your last stop: finishers get an award and a shot at a prize basket.

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