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Southwick Beach State Park

Satellite photograph of Lake Ontario. The cities of Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Toronto are labeled.
The orange dot indicates the location of Southwick Beach State Park on this satellite image of Lake Ontario.
Photograph showing dozens of people along a beach who are swimming, sunbathing, and playing.
Sandy beach and bathers at Southwick Beach State Park in August.
Photograph of a wooden signpost and sign that reads "Lakeview Wildlife Management Area, Natural Beach Area".
Boundary sign for Lakeview Wildlife Management Area in August. The sign is on top of a sandy foredune that is immediately adjacent to the Lake Ontario shoreline. The beachgrass in the foreground is essential to stabilizing the sand in the dune. The trees near the sign are eastern cottonwood trees, which are the only dune-forming trees in the region. To the left of the sign are several tall wormwood plants.
Photograph from one shore of a large pond about a mile across. The sky has clouds that are also seen in reflections from the pond.
Lakeview Pond is separated from Lake Ontario by a long, narrow system of sand dunes that is 200 feet (61 m) wide and more than 2 miles (3.2 km) long. The aquatic plants in the foreground are mostly narrowleaf cattail. The Pond lies within the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area; this viewpoint is at the end of the second, wooden dune walkover reached by walking south along the beach from the park.

Southwick Beach State Park is a New York State park that lies along an unusual stretch of sandy beach on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. The park is 464 acres (188 ha) in size with a 3,500 foot (1,100 m) length of beach, and is visited annually by about 100,000 people.[1] Immediately to the south is the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area (3,461 acres (1,401 ha)), which extends the publicly accessible beach by several miles.[2] They are in the Town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County, New York south of the lakeside community of Jefferson Park.

The park offers an extensive campground with tent and trailer sites, picnic facilities, playing fields and a playground. In summer, the swimming area has lifeguards and the park store is open. In winter, snowmobiles are permitted in the park. The park has an accessible nature trail. There are hiking trails from the park that extend into the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area. Lakeview itself has several access points for launching boats, as well as a second nature trail along South Sandy Creek.[3] The hiking trails and boat routes are described at several websites,[4][5][6] and in guidebooks by William P. Ehling and by Susan Peterson Gateley.[7][8]

The park and wildlife management area lie within a rare, freshwater coastal barrier environment that consists of beaches, sand dunes, embayments and marshes. The wildlife management area is also the Lakeview Marsh and Barrier Beach National Natural Landmark, which was cited in 1973 as "One of the best and most extensive marshlands that lie in protected bays and behind barrier beaches along eastern Lake Ontario."[9] Southwick Beach State Park and Lakeview Wildlife Management Area are included within the New York State Natural Heritage Area entitled "Eastern Lake Ontario Barrier Beach and Wetland Complex";[10] Lakeview is incorporated in the Eastern Lake Ontario Marshes Bird Conservation Area.[11]

  1. ^ 2011 New York State Statistical Yearbook (PDF). Rockefeller Institute of Government. 2011. Table O-9. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  2. ^ "Eastern Lake Ontario Dunes and Wetlands". New York Sea Grant Extension. Archived from the original on February 26, 2008.
  3. ^ "Lakeview WMA Nature Trail". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  4. ^ Earnest, Gillian; Kuehn, Diane; Thompson, Molly; Penney, Mary (2007). "Sand, Wind, & Water: A recreational guide to Eastern Lake Ontario's dunes and wetlands" (PDF). New York Sea Grant. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 27, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  5. ^ "Lakeview Marsh Wildlife Management Area". New York Sea Grant Extension. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007.
  6. ^ Duncan, Paul (2007). "Kayaking Lakeview Wildlife Management Area". Archived from the original on August 7, 2007.
  7. ^ Ehling, William P. (1995). Fifty Hikes in Central New York: Hikes and Backpacking Trips from the Western Adirondacks to the Finger Lakes (Countryman Press). ISBN 978-0-88150-329-6.
  8. ^ Gateley, Susan Peterson (2003). The Edge Walker's Guide to Lake Ontario Beachcombing. Wolcott, New York: Whisky Hill Press.
  9. ^ "National Natural Landmarks - National Natural Landmarks (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved April 15, 2019. lone of the best and most extensive marshlands that lie in protected bays and behind barrier beaches along eastern Lake Ontario.
  10. ^ Ross, Angelena M. (October 12, 2007). "Natural Heritage Area Designation for Eastern Lake Ontario Barrier Beach and Wetland Complex". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  11. ^ "Eastern Lake Ontario Marshes Bird Conservation Area". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
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