Turn down Yale Avenue past the weathered Victorian homes and you'll arrive at this slender ribbon of sand that stretches barely three hundred feet along the Delaware Bay side of Cape May Point. The beach sits in the shadow of a concrete ship breakwater—the remains of the SS Atlantus, a World War I-era vessel that ran aground in 1926 and now rests offshore like a barnacled monument. At low tide, you can walk along exposed sandbars studded with horseshoe crab shells and sea glass smoothed to the texture of soap.
“One of the few remaining public beaches in Cape May County where the only soundtrack comes from wind and wings.”
Credit: FlickrSt. Mary's by the Sea, Cape May, New Jersey
Unlike the boardwalk beaches just four miles north in Cape May proper, St. Mary draws almost no crowds. The beach belongs to the adjacent Catholic retreat center, but public access remains open year-round. You'll share the sand with a handful of locals walking retrievers and the occasional birder scanning for migrating shorebirds. The water stays calm here, sheltered by the point's curve, lapping rather than crashing.
The best moments arrive in the shoulder seasons—October mornings when fog rolls across the bay, or April afternoons when the light turns everything amber. Bring a blanket and a thermos. The nearest amenities are back in town, and that isolation is precisely the point.
