Like Chris mentioned the park open but with restrictions though. Times that the park will be open is from 8AM till 4 PM for now. If you want to fish the beach, the beach access will be from Gillkins ans south to Bathing Beach 1. There is still too much debris for the public to maneuver through safely.
The morning of the opening I was part of the New Jersey Beach Buggie crew that taxied the press through the park with stops up and down the beach. We stopped at A7, which BTW was the major breach location out of 7 breaches along the island. The crews were taken back to the west side of the road and shown a huge barge that was originally burred on the ocean side years ago, but now resides back some 30 yards in amongst the trees that are left.
Continuing on to the Judges shack the dunes that protected the building did exactly what they were supposed to do. The sculpting of the sand due to the enormous wave action stopped right at the porch of the house. WOW, that was close.
Riding south to the inlet and the North Jetty, well all I can say is unbelievable. The ocean undermined the boulders and that were moved due to lack of support and now in some areas you can walk through the boulders and walk to the inlets water. That's right there is now a small beach just to the south side of the rocks. It will change as the water and erodes that away but for now it is surreal to see the jetty with open spaces.
From there we rode up north and got onto Gillkins and rode north, that's right road north. we stopped at the Governors Mansion and allowed the crews a Kodak moment, not much damage if at all. It is all boarded up but the dunes did their job at that point. Just north of the building was another breach point as the dines were a lot lower. Up at this area we saw a lot of debris; more so than down south. There was an old 57 Chevy that probably was unearthed as well as 3 cars from the roller coaster that was in Seaside.
Yes the park is still a mess but it is slowly becoming accessible to the public. By the summer all should be good. There are tons of volunteers that have been out there to help with whatever and it feels great to be part of the New Jersey Beach Buggie Association that has given so much to help save this beach we call Island Beach State Park.
I hope this gives you a better idea of the enormous damage that Sandy inflicted on not only the park but all up and down our coast. If you feel like getting involved contact any number of org. that are so tirelessly helping to get our "Jersey Shore" back and better than it was before.
Happy Catching
Paul
