More Barnegat Lighthouse pics

Friday I returned to the Barnegat Lighthouse to actually ascend the 217 steps to the top, first time I've done this since probably last summer and definitely the first time since it became functional again on January 1st. (See here and here for prior posts.)

As always just click the thumbnail pics to view them full size.
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The first three shots are of the actual light. It doesn't shine at all during the day since (as I understand it) there's a sensor which turns the light on when natural light dims enough at sunset. It's always slowly spinning around 24/7 even though the light itself isn't shining during the day.

Once you climb to the top you can't go all the way up to the lantern room itself as there's a plexiglass barrier in place (blocking the last little stairway for security reasons of course). There are holes in the plexiglass, though, that allow one to get a slightly closer shot by holding a camera up to or even through one of the holes. (Doing that is a bit awkward though, and technically it isn't really allowed as you can only do it by climbing at least two of the last few narrow stairs which are clearly posted as off-limits. I'm a rebel.)

The first image is a normal shot looking up at the light through one of the plexiglass holes. The light itself appears to be just slightly out of focus due to the different distances involved between the plexiglass and the light beyond. The second image somewhat reverses the focus issue as I zoomed toward the hole to focus more on the light and thus the plexiglass is now out of focus. The third one is the frowned upon one obtained by holding the camera right up to one of the holes to simply shoot an unencumbered view of the light. The ladder leads to a hatch to go out on the very top (outside!) of the lighthouse, but I'm sure it's rarely used if ever. I just thought the ladder made the pic slightly more interesting without detracting from the view of the light which I couldn't get any closer to anyway...

       


One view looking westward toward the mainland (though it's not really visible). One view looking eastward over the inlet toward the ocean. And then a max-zoomed view of some "rock writing" on the beach below. Close inspection might reveal a small "rock tower" there just past the "8". (There are more shots of the rock tower below from close up.) There's also a "peace sign" (upper right) and "LBI" (for Long Beach Island, lower left). There are other attempts at writing there, but I can't decipher them. Perhaps they were readable at one time and then disassembled as others borrowed rocks to do something new...

       


A boat and three jet skiers passing in the inlet below...




These next images illustrate better the experience looking out from the top of the lighthouse. I don't know that I've ever shown the protective cage that contains the tourists (I may have, but I didn't go back to check). First shot is looking over the island (the lighthouse parking lot is clearly visible in the foreground). The other two are looking over the inlet (second one zoomed). All three include the wall of the lighthouse itself. I thought the last two were kind of neat looking just for the color of the painted bricks in sunlight.

Most times when taking pics of the surrounding area (as above) I'm positioning my camera between the bars to get an unobstructed outward view, but this time I deliberately wanted to try to provide a sense of what it's like to be up there behind bars. People can still be affected by a fear of heights, of course, but there really is no danger of falling (excluding some sort of unforeseeable catastrophe)...

       


Now I'll finish with the previously mentioned "rock tower" as viewed up close, first looking toward the beach houses, then toward the inlet, and last with the lighthouse as an appropriate background. The "bulge" just below the lantern room at the top is the caged area from where I took the prior shots...