~Jonathon Dickinson State Park (Part 1)~

We have just spent 2 wonderful days at Jonathon State Park on the east coast of Florida.  The park is huge and has so much to see and do.  We had to wait and see if we could get a site, so we decided to go on a hike.  We did a 3.2km walk to the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower.  It had beautiful scenery, lots of butterflies, we even saw an otter, but oh SO hot!  The boys also did a Jr Ranger Program.

Nearing the tower it had this lovely boardwalk.

It had a great view from the top of the whole area - the beaches, the campground (waayyy in the distance) etc....

We saw this coachwhip snake on the rock on our way down.  Yikes!  There are many venomous snakes in Florida so we stayed cleared of it!!

We had 5 very red faces when we came back to the trailer - all in desperate need of water!!

In the afternoon we went to the Kimball Education Center where the boys finished up their Jnr Ranger books and we all enjoyed walking around it and reading all about the area and all its inhabitants!!

We watched the "movie" on the park too.  All very interesting!  Notice we are in the front row G.Gang!!  Mind you......we were the only ones there!!!   :)   :)

They had fabulous sites!!!  Check out the size of them.   Every site was huge, had raked gravel, had a large picnic table, fire pit AND your own washing line!!!!!  Very cool!!!  3 years ago this park had a hurricane come through and wipe out all the trees and they re-did all the sites.

We met this lovely couple from Saskatchewan who SO kindly gave us some bikes to borrow.  Thanks SO much Steve and Claire - we had some great rides around the park.

The following morning we went down to the Loxahatchee River where we went on a river boat tour.  It was just the 7 of us and one other lady, so basically a private tour.

It was SO calm and everything was so still - it was amazingly beautiful.   Our captain gave us some good information about the area, the river, the plants, trees and animals.   We were able to see an alligator, some manatees and tons of lovely birds.

This is an osprey nest.  We watched her bring a fish to her babies.  So cool!

Then off to Trapper Nelsons Interpretive Site.   We got off the boat and were met by a park ranger who walked us through the site - SO interesting. Trapper Nelson found this area in the 1930's.  It had tons of wildlife and for decades he lived off the land.   He built everything here with hand tools.  In addition to "trapping" he made a living by starting a business which he called "Trapper's Zoo" and had tourists come here and learn about the mystery of the river.  He lived in his camp until his mysterious death in 1968.

This is where he kept his animals - gators, tortoises, snakes, raccoons etc.....

After lunch we decided to go on a family bike ride as our friends gave us 3 more bikes to use.   Unfortunately the "rental" bikes were too big for the boys so we just took turns in riding.  Brad and I stopped to look for alligators while waiting for the others to ride by.

I rode with Jess, Becky, Shae and Trav 8 kms down to the river and then Scott rode back to campground with them.

The following afternoon we went down to DuBois Park.   What a neat spot!  They have a lagoon area with clear, shallow, warm water and a great beach.

Then there was the inlet with very fancy boats coming in and out and the famous Jupiter Lighthouse.

There was also a large fishing pier and lovely beach area which attracts surfers.

On our way back home we stopped at Jupiter Beach to take a look.

Our "friend" was at the lake at the campground and spent the afternoon lazing in the sun!!  Do they do anything else??