Thursday, September 24 - We traveled a little over 200 miles this morning down I-95 to Hobe Sound, Florida. We are about 75 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. This is a huge park – over 10,000 acres. It is one of Florida's largest and most diverse state parks.
The park is named for Jonathan Dickinson, a Quaker merchant whose vessel shipwrecked nearby in 1696. His party became victims of Indian wars and disease and died shortly thereafter.
During World War II, the land the park now occupies was home to Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school. It became a state park in 1950.
There are two campgrounds available. One is designed for smaller RV's and tent campers with water and 30-amp electric. Those sites are grass and have fire rings. The other is newly remodeled and predominately designed for RV's including being “big rig” friendly. This is where we are parked in Site #73. The streets are paved with compacted gravel sites. We have a 50-amp full hook-up site. This surprised us. Our research showed the site to have only water and electric, but we were pleasantly surprised to be told we had a sewer hook-up as well. There is a very large attached patio of gravel with a fire ring and posts to string up a clothes line. There are large grassy areas between the sites making it nice and private. The price is $27/day + tax. This does include entrance to the park each day. Possibly a disadvantage to some is that there is no shade in this bigger camping area. With 50 amp, we are plenty comfortable even in the 90 degree weather.
Looking right.
Looking left.
There are cabins available to rent, canoes, kayaks, motorboats and bicycles also for rent. There is a picnic area and a playground. There is also a network of over 20 miles of hiking trails maintained by the Florida Trail Association.
The Hobe Mountain Observation Tower offers awesome views of the park, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.
Hobe Mountain (should actually call it a hill) is an ancient sand dune that rises a whopping 86 feet above sea level, making it the highest natural point in South Florida south of Lake Okeechobee
That is the Intracostal Waters in front. The Ocean blends in with the sky in the back.
There is a very nice nature center and Visitor's Center with exhibits of many of the animals calling Jonathan Dickinson State Park home. They also have many programs including guided hikes, night hikes, guided platoon rides on the river and guided canoe and kayak tours. We've signed up for a kayak tour tomorrow morning – our first experience in a kayak. So ya'll come back and experience a first kayak trip with Marsha. This should be an experience!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
That looks like a wonderful campground, nice and quiet, our kinda place.
ReplyDeleteIts been years since we have kayaked and canoed, enjoy it.
Don't fall in there are gators in the water. I have never been a kayak either. Have a good time......
ReplyDeleteSounds nice, We are currently working on visiting every state park in FL with a campground. We did four this month. Will add this one to the list:)
ReplyDeleteJD State Park was hit by a hurricane a few years ago and most of the trees were wiped out. They rebuilt the campground and upgraded the electric at that time.
ReplyDeleteFlorida has an excellent state park system and we've visited a number of the parks. If you get down to the Keys (our favorite area in the US), there are 4 parks there. If you would like our impressions on the parks there, let me know and I will send it in an email. Bahia Honda SP and Long Key SP are our favorites down there and they do have "walk up sites" but it is hit or miss if you can snag one.
I predict you will love the kayak tour, gators and all!
ReplyDeleteIf we ever go to Florida, and I doubt that, this looks like a great park.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful park and FHU's!! I hope you were able to breath with that elevation gain...haha! I can't wait to hear how your kayak trip went. We did a guided canoe trip while in the Everglade area and that was great fun.
ReplyDeleteI probably would have picked the canoe trip, but only because I have lots more experience with canoes than with kayaks. I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip.
ReplyDeleteAs I sit here trying to get warm this morning I am wishing I was with you two! We love kayaking so I will be interested to see how you two did.
ReplyDeleteLove that header photo! Looks like a great place.... I'd like that nature center.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I got this far behind in blogging. See what one little trip does to us. I'll have to read these to remind myself of all the great places you're traveling.
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