Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest: How to Get There & What to Do

Never having been to Fire Island, whose ferry is just a 20-minute drive from Pat’s house, Pat and I decided to explore it. With so many options to choose from on the island and limited transportation, we decided on a day trip to one of its many beaches, Sailors Haven, with a trip to Sunken Forest.

I’ve heard people in New York talk about Fire Island, but have never actually been there for myself. With the ferry to Fire Island being just a 20-minute drive from Pat’s house, it was crazy that we hadn’t done a day trip there in all these years. After doing some research, we decided to make our first visit to Fire Island—Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest.

Fire Island is an island located on the south shore of Long Island. One of the things that make the island unique is its size. It’s 30 miles in length, but just ½ mile wide! And that’s at its widest point. Today it is populated with roughly 17 different car-free communities, most residential and others with a few downtown shops, nightlife and beaches. For this reason, getting on and off the island is only possible via ferry. Once you’re on the island, you either travel by bike or on foot. And with over 400 residents all year round (that reaches 20,000 in the summer!), it’s a good thing cars aren’t allowed. It gives these towns an old colonial small town feel and builds tightly knit communities.

How Do You Get to Sailors Haven & Sunken Forest?

Of the 17 communities we decided to visit Sailors Haven, which is home to Fire Island National Seashore’s famous maritime forest Sunken Forest. People call Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest interchangeably since it is all located in the same community. So how do you get to Fire island if cars aren’t allowed on it? To get to Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest, we drove to the Sayville Ferry station. The Sayville Ferry is the only ferry that reaches Sailors Haven. We parked our car in the car lot across from the ferry docks, which cost $15 Friday to Sunday and $7.50 Monday through Thursday. We decided to grab the first ferry out of Sayville in order to make the most out of the day and in the hopes of avoiding the crowds. We paid $7.50 each (one way) and hopped on the 9:30AM. The next Sayville ferry time was at 11:15AM, so I recommend you head out there early if you want to make the most of your day. Quick tip: There are no restrooms on the ferry so make sure to use them in Sayville before you board.

How Long Is The Ferry Ride From Sayville to Fire Island?

We waited for the neighboring ferry of Cherry Grove (one of the nation’s first and oldest LGBT communities) to depart before us. We sat on the upper deck and watched as all 3 departed at the same time. We rode side by side across the Great South Bay to our destinations! The ride from Sayville to Fire Island was roughly 30 minutes long. There are no restrooms on the ferry so make sure to go before you board.

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Relax at Sailors Haven Beach

We disembarked at Sailors Haven and made our way across the island from the Great South Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, where the much clearer and rougher sea awaited. On the Great South Bay side you can stop by the visitor center, gift shop, or snack bar before heading out to the beach. To get to the beach, you walk on a boardwalk that passes by Sunken Forest, which I talk about below. Along your way you’ll pass by changing rooms, restrooms and outdoor showers and a sand bar “cross walk” that takes you to either Cherry Grove on the East or Sunken Forest on the West.

At the end of the boardwalk lies that beautiful and oh so common wooden staircase takes you to Sailors Haven beach and opens up to a bed of sand facing the Atlantic Ocean. From here, you can take in your usual Long Island beach beauty—white sands, big waves, clear waters and a wooden Lifeguard stand. We spent the majority of our morning relaxing under the sun and taking in the peace and quiet of the beautiful Fire Island.

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Walking Sunken Forest Nature Trail

As it hit 12:30PM clouds started to hover over the beach, so we decided this was a good opportunity to walk back to the boardwalk and start exploring Sunken Forest. We left our chairs, beach towels and umbrella on the beach, carried our valuable items with us in a bag and headed to Sunken Forest. Sunken Forest Natural Trail is a thin strip of forest about a ¼ mile wide and 1.5 miles long known for its globally rare collection of plants, including a variety of tress, shrubs, American Holly and catbrier. The walk takes about 45 minutes, so prepare yourself with water, a camera and some sunscreen.

Enter and you’ll immediately start noticing the rich flora and trees surrounding you. Sunken Forest is called “Sunken” because it is formed behind a line of secondary dunes, which makes it look “sunken” from the tops of the dunes. This illusion makes it look like the forest is below sea level, when in reality it is not.

As you walk throughout you’ll begin to notice that most trees don’t grow taller than 20-30 feet. Our favorites were shadblow: the thin, tall and twisted trees. These trees are shaped this way due to the constant salt spray, freshwater marshland, and abundant wildlife surrounding it. It’s rare for an island this wide to have wildlife in the first place. So how does this phenomenon happen you may ask? Well freshwater is lighter than salt water, so when it rains it displaces the salt water, allowing for wildlife to grow.

Along the way you’ll encounter deer, foxes and other wildlife. Now I know what you may be thinking, how did deer make it all the way to this island? Believe it or not, scientists say they probably traveled over the bay when it was frozen solid and have remained here since. Towards the end of your trip you’ll make it out to the sand dunes where you can either walk back to your spot on the beach on the beach or walk back through Sunken Forest. I recommend you walk back on the beach for 2 reasons.

Following a long and relaxing day at Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest, we hopped on the 4:00PM ferry back to Sayville. Sailors Haven and Sunken Forest are an amazing escape from your usual beach excursions on Long Island. Whether you are looking for a secluded beach with a lot of space or whether you want to take a break from the heat and walk through a cool, shady forest, Sailors Haven has got it all.

For more info visit Fireisland.com or their Facebook page, Fire Island, New York.

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