What to do at Jonathan Dickinson State Park…

Staying here at Jonathan Dickinson State Park offers many opportunities for outdoor activities. Other than taking our normal walks which we can do most anywhere, staying here allows us the opportunity to do some on road and off road biking. There are numerous bike trails throughout the park ranging from an easy  5-mile ride on the main park road to the Loxahatchee River or more challenging trails such as the sandy bike trails marked by a skull and crossbones sign denoting the difficulty of the trail.

The off-road trails are part of the bicycle trail system called the Camp Murphy Off-Road Bicycle Trails. They have over 8 miles of trails and even have a “skill” area where one can practice their bike skills on balance beams, log piles, ramps etc. You can also bike the mile or so from the campground over to the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower. Hobe Mountain is the tallest natural point in south Florida – 86 feet above sea level… The view from the tower offers glimpses at old military buildings back when the park was a top secret communications base in the 1940’s as well as views of the nearby canal and ocean. Or you can bike the five miles to the Kimbell Education Center to look at interpretive exhibits or watch the park movie. .Lots of biking possibilities…

Also nearby are several public access beaches such as Coral Cove or Hobe Sound, a Martin County Beach Park. We visited Coral Cove the last time we were here and it offers pretty decent snorkeling in this part of Florida. We haven’t had the opportunity to snorkel there yet as it has been pretty windy each day we have been here.

We have visited Hobe Sound Beach Park however, as it is a nice beach with easy free parking access less than 10 minutes from the park. A great beach for walking, sunning, shelling or fishing… We have stopped by this park several times and I even caught a nice Florida Pampano,(or it may have been a juvenile Permit),  while fishing the surf… it should provide us a couple of nice meals down the road.

Then on the overcast and windy day we had yesterday we simply took a drive on the interpretive driving trail in the park and hiked the hour-long Kitching Creek Nature Trail…. we may have instead driven along South Beach Road just north of Jupiter Florida and ogled at all the huge ocean front properties of all those people in the one percent income bracket. When driving along those roads there are very few glimpses of the homes because they are hidden by elaborate landscaping that is tended by oodles of gardeners… but we had already done that the day before.… another tough day on the road.

Side Note: what do you see in this photograph of a dead burned out tree?

I saw two things… a hyena laughing at the moon and I also saw a dead woodpecker lying on its back on top of a dead hawk lying on its back… and no I wasn’t out in the sun too long and I wasn’t partaking of too much two buck chuck…