Dog's Excellent Beach Adventure!

This week's big adventure was a trip to dog friendly Gardiner County Park and Beach in Bay Shore, Long Island.  Bay Shore is also the town where you can take the ferry boats to Fire Island.  We love Gardiner's, it's a beautiful neighborhood park that allows dogs.  It's a real hidden gem for dog lovers on Long Island!

We're Off on an Adventure!

The park itself is lovely, with an open grassy field and several short trails to walk along, but the real draw of Gardiner Park for dogs and their people is the fabulous dog friendly beach at the end of it! 




It's a long walk to get to the beach, about a mile down a beautiful wide path with lots of shade trees.  The path itself is a great walk with your dog.  It's an easy walk, great exercise for both people and dogs. There are lots of interesting things for dogs to sniff along the way too!

At about a mile each way, the walk down to the beach is a great outing in itself for people and dogs.  There are lots of shade trees along the way.

Once you get to the end of the walking path, it opens up gloriously right on to the shores of the Great South Bay.
  
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The park's walking path opens up to the shores of the Great South Bay

It's so beautiful!  The water is nice and calm with very gentle waves for dogs to swim in.  It's not as pristine as most Long Island beaches, but for a dog friendly beach, it's terrific!

Phoebe posing along the shore of the Great South Bay in Gardiner Park.  She's wearing her adorable lobster harness!

Icy waded into the water just to her belly, she's not really a swimmer - yet.  Phoebe dipped her tiny paws into the water just to cool off, but she wasn't as adventurous as Icy wading into the water.

Icy got her feet wet in the bay.  You can see the bridge that spans the bay, the Robert Moses Causeway, in the distance.

We walked the dogs along the shore where they explored and sniffed every nook and cranny!  

Icy and Phoebe exploring the shoreline of Gardiner Beach!

In the background of some of the photos, you see the bridge that spans over the bay.  It's the Robert Moses Causeway, which leads to Robert Moses beach and the famous Jones Beach.  No dogs are permitted on those beautiful beaches, unfortunately.  

Jones Beach is super popular and super crowded.  Robert Moses is not quite as crowded because it's a couple of miles further East.  Many people come from the city, about 30 miles West, to hit the beach. They usually prefer to stop at Jones Beach rather than continue the extra few miles on to Robert Moses.  I hope some day these beaches will have some access for dogs, but for now I'll take the shores of the Great South Bay at Gardiner's Beach for Icy and Phoebe!

Along the walking path there is a nice little pond.  The dogs didn't want to jump in it, but Icy didn't mind posing at the edge for a photo!

On the way out of the park Icy discovered a bunch of logs and decided to pose on one of them.

It was a really fun day for all of us!  The four of us pretty much crashed when we got home; with all that fresh air, sunshine, and walking we were pooped!  We all needed a nap.

What do you think of dog friendly Gardiner Park and beach?  Do you have a dog friendly beach or lake near you?  Leave us a comment and tell us, we LOVE hearing from you!

Sharing is Caring, so if you enjoyed reading this, we'd appreciate it if you'd give us a Tweet, Pin or other social share!  If you liked this post, you may also enjoy these:

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Although this is a post from 2017, I'm participating in the 2018 APPRECIATE THE MOMENTS blog hop hosted by The Everyday Dog Mom!