Super Full Moon Rise, Hamptom Beach, NH

Timed perfectly, we rumbled onto Route 1A heading north, just as the setting sun was making a blazing, spectacular exit over the salt marshes and marina in Seabrook.  We had just enough time to click off a series of sunset picture captures, before turning the car around to oceanside for the real show of the evening, or maybe of the century. 

Parking the car at Hampton Beach State Park, we rolled past the empty booth where the parking fee is collected on searing hot summer days, and into the near empty lot with the last chill of winter still running along the sea air.  Grabbing cameras and tripod we dashed through the dunes to scope out the prime spot for nature’s free show.  As seagulls combed the beach for their dinner, we shot a few glances and pictures of the now almost completely set sun.

The horizon stretching over the ocean was nearly inky black as we peered into the darkness. Suddenly a tiny red glow appeared directly on the horizon.  It looked like red tail lights shimmering on a new black hot top on a rainy night.  But no, it was the very top curve of the full moon, rising miraculously from the cold Atlantic Ocean, already brilliant hot-pink red with the reflection of its mother sun’s brilliant energy shining on it as it sunk in the western sky. 

With great speed, it began to rise like a giant waking from slumber, until suddenly we could see the entire orb still glowing a hot red, and giving the impression that you could reach right out and touch it, or run across the incoming tide to sit next to it on the water. 

We snapped pictures and shot video until another group of moon watchers found our ideal vantage point. We heard voices of little kids echoing over the sands. There were children in the group who were running with glee all around the cold sand in the dark, happy to be running free with so much open space.  Instead of using all of the free space, or course they ran circles around the tripod, which was delicately balanced on the dimpled sand, left rippled from that morning’s outgoing tide. One of the kids started to shake my tripod and grabbing it with two hands tried to pull it away and then we heard this yell in the dark, the mother of one of the boys shouted out, “Damian, stay away from that nice camera…”  By that point, the kid was acting very much like his namesake in the Omen movie, and the mom’s admonitions definitely went in one ear and out the other. Later the mothers struck up a conversation, asking us if we were scientists, but the children continued their frolicking

Despite the theater on the beach, the drama in the sky unfolded to the amazement of all. Our super moon, the closest to earth in 18 years, moved higher and higher and stayed red, then orange and time seemed to stand still.   We have been on the same beach many times watching fireworks to the gasping cries of the crowd, but this show in the sky had a completely different character to it, one of almost hushed awe and reverence.  

Once the moon was high in the sky and turning a yellow-white hue, we went back to the car and blasted the heater to warm up from the wind and chill down on the sand.   We rode north on 1A and saw the reflection of the now-high moon on the water as we made our way towards north beach.  

On the way home, we stopped at Lena’s Seafood for a late night dinner and headed home eager to download pictures.