Salisbury Beach State Reservation

I had an hour to kill yesterday while Jett was napping, so I decided to run down to the Salisbury Beach State Reservation – just a half-mile away – to take a peek. The place was packed over the weekend with traffic backed up a half mile trying to get into the parking lot, so I was wondering what the attraction was. I assumed it was a beach and not much else.

Well, it is certainly a beach – a very nice, sandy beach – but it is also a huge campground. 438 sites, mostly for RVs but some tent-only sites, too. They are all water/electric (no sewer), but the park has a huge 4-lane dump station for emptying your tanks as you leave. The summer rates for an RV site are under $35 a day, making it very affordable (most private RV parks in Massachusetts charge over $50 per day) and it is very close to the beach. An easy walk. The problem, for us, is that there is a 40-foot limit on the RV length (we are 42) and there is a 14-day limit on the number of days you use the campground during the summer season. But for people who want a very nice campground for a short stay near the beach in MA, this is a great option.

The other problem for us, as seniors, is that the $10 annual senior pass for day use is limited to MA residents. Ah, finally a downside to being FL residents.

Since the reservation is very near “downtown” Salisbury Beach – a small honkytonk beach town – I dropped by there for a few minutes, too. I was surprised to see a bunch of remote TV station vans set up and broadcasting. As it was after 5pm it was obvious that they were doing live segments from Salisbury Beach. I wondered what the story was. Well, it turns out that the body of a fisherman who had gone missing a few days before washed up on the beach that afternoon. Must have been an unpleasant surprise for the families and the small children who were trying to get a break from the 94-degree heat.