1/16 Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse

I had been here before but decided it would make a nice day trip, so off I went.  This lighthouse is located just south of Daytona Beach, at the inlet to the Inlet Waterway.  I had to park in the back in a lot meant for boat trailers because the regular parking lot was full. This is the entrance and gift shop.

You can see people walking around on the top.  At 175 feet, this is the second tallest lighthouse in the U.S.   Only the Cape Hatteras Light in the Outer Banks is taller at 210 feet.  I climbed that one four years ago, and this one also in 2013!

 

 Each of the lighthouse keeper's homes is a museum with period clothing and furniture.

Almost to the top!  It still makes me dizzy looking down to the bottom in this photo.

203 steps later, I am at the top.  This is looking north toward Daytona Beach.

 

And this is looking south toward the inlet.

This sailboat is not doing so well.  Apparently, it got stuck on a sandbar, but at least the tide is coming in now.

Roof of my motorhome looks good.  The arrow points to where my TV antenna used to be before I bent it driving under some low branches in a grocery store parking lot.  Since I have a satellite dish, the round thing in the front, I never use it anyways.

 

 Another dizzying view.

 

 If I were a little bit taller, I could have stuck my camera lens into this hole and got a better picture of the lighthouse lens.  This is still a working lighthouse, so the lens was turning around. 

Whew! Walls at the bottom of this lighthouse at 8' thick and only 2' thick at the top. As you can see, it is entirely made of brick.

This is the lens museum and one of the most interesting parts of the visit here.

This is a view of the top part of the original Ponce Inlet Lighthouse First- Order Fresnel Lens. It is too tall to fit into one photo.

You can see the turning mechanism in this picture of the bottom half. Note that someone could climb the stairs to get inside the lens to maintain and clean it.

Behind and to the left of the Ponce lens is the Cape Canaveral lighthouse lens that was removed in 1995, restored, and placed here for safekeeping because the frequent rocket launches were causing vibrations that threatened to damage this piece of history. 

Some smaller lamps and lens.

 

 This is a strange lens!

 

My legs and back hurt, but it was well worth the trip and the climb!