Monday, June 13, 2011

Tucked in at Jupiter Florida…

jzh at juno beach fl

Our last day at Flagler Beach had us eyeing a mountain bike ride at Bulow Creek State Park. This was a 6.8 mile trail (one way) and wasn’t a loop so to get back you had to ride another 6.8 miles. This trail is called the Bulow Woods trail and it is known for its large elegant live oaks with a palmetto understory giving one a sense of Jurassic Park at times. With the drought here in Florida the trail was pretty dry, however, we did see a flock of about 20 wild turkeys with many youngsters in their midst and I spotted 3 wild pigs running as fast as they could through the woods.

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This is a great mountain bike trail but it provided several challenges. The trail was pretty decent except for two lengthy stretches that included some deep sands that swallowed our tires and another stretch had some large protruding roots that about shook the bejesus out of us. At the end of the trail is the 150 acres of the100_5132 Bulow Plantation Ruins. This historic site houses the ruins of a large sugar plantation and mill that were destroyed by the Seminole Indians.

We did find one small short cut that knocked off about a mile, so our total trip was around 12-13 miles long and when we got back we were beat!!! So back to the motorhome we went and took a shower and had dinner and then headed to Flagler Beach to watch the sunset by the ocean at a place called Finz. This place caught our eye with its elevated second story deck looking out over the ocean. Not quite a Road Treat but real close.

IMAG0177We didn’t eat dinner there but the menu looked okay but what we did order was  their $3.00 glasses of cabernet wine. We gallivanted over to the upstairs outdoor deck that overlooks the ocean and sat there at the bar enjoying a few glasses of wine. Met a another Texas A&M University grad and had a great time chatting and soaking it all in…

The next morning we packed up the camp and headed south down highway 95. A couple of hundred miles later I pulled into Jonathan Dickinson State Park about 3 miles north of Jupiter Florida just outside of Palm Beach. The park is very large with campsites near the road we came in on and another campground four miles in by a river. The river100_5136 campground is older and has more shade and the newer campground has little to no shade but large and very level sites. We are staying in site 73 and after a light evening shower we are settled in. We plan to hit the beach tomorrow after visiting Juno Beach on our way to a grocery run. One look at the blue water and we had to make plans to return. We will stay here 2 or 3 days and then make our final run to the Keys…

5 comments:

  1. Love all the pictures today. Those ruins look very interesting. Stay cool.

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  2. We may head up to Bulow after we leave Tampa. I don't think we'll get out on that bike trail though!

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  3. Looking forward to hearing about the Keys and where you stay. I love riding my bike but have never done the mountain bike thing. Looks like hard work but a beautiful place.

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