Canal Beach
Canal Road & Cockenoe Drive, Saugatuck Shores, Westport, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Located on the Saugatuck Shores peninsula near Seymour Point.

Directions:

US 95 north to exit 17; turn right onto Route 136 (Saugatuck Avenue); drive 0.9 of a mile and turn left onto Duck Pond Road; drive 0.4 of a mile and turn left onto Harbor Road; drive 0.7 of a mile and turn right onto Canal Road; follow it to its end and park in the parking lot on the left.

Facilities:

small sand and rocky beach overlooking Long Island Sound and Cockenoe Island. 

Trails:

11/05/2005.  On a warm, beautiful day (very much above the usual seasonal temperature), Rosemary Cooney, Sarah-David Rosenbaum, dog Sonar and I toured the very small rocky, shelly beach.  The beach is probably no more than 40 yards across.  It is sandwiched between private property.  The only saving grace is that there is salt marsh on both sides of Canal Road, so one can walk along that road also.  Since the beach was so small there was not that much vegetation, but we also botanized the parking lot area and the salt marsh along Canal Road.  From the beach one can see Sprite Island as well as another, Sheep Rock probably. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick Cooney, Sarah-David Rosenbaum, Rosemary Cooney

*  = plant blooming on date of field trip, 11/05/2005

Trees:
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Celtis occidentalis (hackberry)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Pinus sp. (pine)
Pinus thunbergii (Japanese black pine)

Shrubs:
Baccharis halimifolia (groundsel bush)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Iva frutescens (marsh elder)
Juniperus sp. (horizonatalis) ? (juniper)
Opuntia humifusa (prickly pear cactus)
Rosa rugosa (wrinkled rose)

Vines:
Calystegia sepium (hedge bindweed) 
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Atriplex hastata (halberd-leaved orach)
Atriplex patula (orach)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Limonium carolinianum (sea lavender)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Salicornia sp. (glasswort)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)
Solanum nigrum (black nightshade)     *
Solidago sempervirens (seaside goldenrod)     *
Taraxacum sp. (dandelion)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)

Grasses:
Elytrigia repens (quack grass)
Panicum virgatum (switch grass)
Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cord grass)
Spartina patens (salt meadow cord grass)
 

 

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