Crane Beach — Attraction in Ipswich

Choate Island Day at the Crane Beach Reservation

Crane Beach is the jewel in the crown of Trustees of Reservations (TTOR); four miles of pristine Atlantic Ocean coastline backed by dunes that are the home to endangered piping plovers and other species. But the beach is just the most visible part of the 2100-acre Crane Reservation. As you drive Argilla Road to get to the beach entrance, you pass marshland and creeks. In the distance are hills. They’re also part of the Reservation; all the product of the gift of the Crane family that came in installments over almost 40 years.

If you’re a kayaker, there are three-hour guided tours of the marsh, including one that makes a stop to explore part of Choate Island. If you’re not an adept paddler, one day each year, usually the last Saturday in September, TTOR throws open the figurative door and invites everyone to explore a place that is equal parts history, ecology, geology, and magic.

In any other universe, Choate Island (also called Hog Island) would today be covered with luxury townhouses and a golf course or two. Instead, it is pretty much as it looked a couple of centuries ago. It is a drumlin; a product of a retreating glacier dumping a load of rocks in one spot, rising to 200 feet at it peak. The Choate family purchased it from the Native Americans and turned it into a farm. As the decades went by, the family grew wealthy and kept the island as a retreat. In the second decade of the 20th Century, the 2100 acres were acquired by the Chicago-based Crane family, who use the estate as a summer residence. There are just a handful of buildings on the island; a barn, the original homestead, and a 1940s-era house where the last Crane family member lived into the 1990s. All are carefully preserved and, on Choate Island Day, available to explore.

Access to the island is by a ferry. I opted for the guided tour which was led by Kate, a TTOR employee who was an energetic fountain of information. Over the course of a four-mile walk that took us from the ferry dock to the island summit where the graves of two members of the Crane family are located, Kate paused numerous times to allow the older members of the group to catch their breath while she offered historical, geological, and horticultural tidbits.

As the photos attest, the views from Choate Island are astonishing. On Choate Island Day, there are numerous talks given at various sites and loads of volunteers sharing in-depth stories about life on the island. My favorite, though, may have been a dockside, where a volunteer showed detailed photos and charts of the changes in the topology of Crane Beach’s dunes and coastline over the years. Each month, he records the height of the dunes at multiple points and plots them on a graph showing their ebb and flow. It was, in a word, fascinating. Choate Island Day was, in a few words, memorable, idyllic, and...

They PRETEND to care about wildlife -- and take donations from you based on this DISINGENEOUS claim. My personal experience: a seagull had its wing broken by people on the beach, as witnessed by their lifeguards; it languished on their beach in everyone's view for at least 3 weeks, with its wing dragging on the ground and hanging by only a tendon. Their response was "we hope he gets eaten by a coyote and nature takes its course". Really, you call people injuring animals on purpose "nature"??? They said they "don't have time to worry about it". OK, so I took the time to do worry about it: I caught the seagull myself with my husband's help and offered to drive it 3 hours to the Cape Wildlife Center, where it could have received proper care or be humanely euthanized. After I caught the gull with my beach blanket, all of their managers and staff came out all of a sudden and magically had "time" to "worry about it". Their worry: I was on "private property" and "uncooperative"!!!! (because I didn't want to let the gull starve to death in their parking lot!). THEY ACTUALLY CALLED THE IPSWICH POLICE on my husband and I for offering to drive an injured bird to a wildlife center!!! I have no idea what they did with the poor injured gull -- they took him away. One of their staff said they most likely dumped him in a "less visible area" where no one who was "visiting the beach would be complaining to them" that they are not doing anything about it. That's their version of wildlife care? It's like a wildlife fail!!! It was a disturbing experience -- just pray you don't run into wildlife that needs a bit of help, and that you dare to care about it. The Trustees of Reservations and their staff were callous and uncaring when people injure wildlife on their property -- and nasty and antagonistic to people who care and offer help. Sooooooooooo sad. My interactions were with their "Beach Coordinator", their "Ecologist" (who looked completed baffled and annoyed by my concerns), and some "Manager" who gave everyone directions but avoided or did not care to speak to me directly....

I love this beach. They've got everything you expect of a privately run operation. The trustees do an excellent job with daily upkeep of the premises. You must order a "day pass" online "The Trustees of Reservations at Crane Beach" website where you can see in and off season rates and availability. Plenty of parking. Changing rooms with bathrooms, no flush composting toilets, and plenty of sinks with always full soap dispensers and multiple hands driers. Changing stalls are convenient so you can easily put on sun tan lotion properly everywhere and change into your swimsuit privately. They also have multiple outdoor shower head wash stations for after your day is done you can get that clammy beachy feel off of your body (would advise to bring some body wash as that helps to have a quick sudsy clean). They have a shop to commemorate your day at the beach with t-shirts, hoodies, and such like. They also have a place to eat if you don't come pre-prepared with food. There are miles of sand dune trails with the trailhead marker in the back right corner (as you come in at your 4 o'clock, roughly) of the main parking lot to access them all. Be prepared and pace yourself as a few miles will feel like more due to the nature of sand, and there are some tough trails that will leave you huffing and puffing if you try to run them for any...