2/12 John D. MacArthur SP

Last day with my rental car, so I decided to run some errands and take a drive down to this park.  Nice little shop and ranger's station, and a very nice boardwalk to the beach.  If you need it, they have a free tram until 4:00 p.m. each day. 

As I have said before, there are a lot of much nicer beaches in Florida, so I guess I am wondering why Palm Beach and this area is considered so nice.  Hmmmm.

Looks like the fishing must be good here since there were so many of them. Nice walk on a nice day, at least.  

2/9 Blowing Rocks Preserve & a Lizard Friend

Blowing Rocks is a Nature Conservancy Preserve that is on both sides of the beach highway.  I had driven past it a couple of days earlier, so came back today when it was a little sunnier and I had more time. 

This is the path to the beach on the ocean side of the road.

This is not the best beach in Florida.  In fact, it is narrow and full of sharp shell-sand and seaweed.  Hard to walk on, but nice to look at.  There were a lot of fishermen.

It is unusual to see rocks along a Florida beach.  This place is called Blowing Rocks because during big storms, the waves crash and them throw spray high into the air when they hit the rocks. 

 

 After sitting on the boardwalk entrance to the beach for a while, I went back across the street and walked the short distance on another boardwalk to the river side of the barrier island.  It was a beautiful and very pleasant day, so I just sat and enjoyed myself.

My entertainment was provided by a couple of small lizards, at least one of which wanted to cross the platform, but was not sure what I was.  He kept peeking out from various places, then hiding and coming back again.  His body was only about 3" long, but his tail was another 6" at least. 

Finally, he decided it was safe, so scurried on his way. 

2/6 Jupiter Lighthouse

I've been here before, but I love to climb lighthouses, so I went again.  It is one of the tallest lighthouses in Florida at 108' tall, and it was built in 1860. 

 

The lighthouse was built in an area at the opening of Jupiter Inlet that contains several shell middens.  A shell midden is built up over hundreds of years by native peoples eating shellfish and then leaving the shells behind--basically a gigantic trash heap!  Many in this area were excavated in the 1800s and early 1900s, so there is a very nice museum here with some of the artifacts found in the midden.



Some nice views from the top.

This is a first-order Fresnel lens, the largest and most powerful of the six classes of Fresnel lens.  All were made in France. This is actually still a working light, so you cannot tour late in the afternoon.  You also must be escorted to and from the lighthouse because the grounds are a Coast Guard station.

I did some exploring afterwards, driving my rental car along a beach drive with enormous homes.  This below is a driveway!  There are hundreds of no parking signs and no places to pull over, so it is obvious that they do not exactly welcome uninvited visitors to these places.

 

2/4 Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Jupiter, FL

I've stayed here before.  It is a nice state park with a few benefits, including full hookups, lots of bike trails including being within biking distance of stores and shops, and having a pretty river and wildlife along it.  It looks a little bare because most of the trees were damaged a while back in a hurricane and in the construction of the newer campground. 

This is the river.  There is a boat tour I took last time I was here and will probably take again this visit.  They also rent kayaks, but with my sore hand there is no way I can get into or out of one because they launch from the dock instead of from a ramp. 

The visitor center, store, and river tour area is about five miles from my campsite, which is fine with my electric bike. 

And a not-so-friendly resident alongside the road.  He was only a 4-footer, but did not like having his photo taken. 

One of the burned areas.  They have been working to burn areas to reduce the amount of invasive species of plants and reduce the chances of a larger fire in the future.

They have quite a few biking areas and this was an area for kids to have fun on some man-made hills.  The bike areas were all carefully marked and one-way so no one has a head-on collision.  I prefer paved bike paths, so skipped this one!

This asphalt road was more my style.

 
I really enjoy exploring on my bike, but I have a rental car planned for later this week so I can explore even farther. 

2/2 Last Day at Ortona Locks Recreation Area

Pretty view of the river downstream.

I moved down to the other end of the campground last night because I had originally only been able to get the site close to the locks for six nights.  Here are a couple of views of the dam from downstream.  In the foreground is one of two fishing piers.

 

As I was working online, I caught a glimpse of a big paddlewheeler  entering the lock, so I dropped everything and ran, or almost ran, down to the viewing area on the other side of the locks.  Here is it, with bunch of tourists on the deck watching us watching them. 

I know they can let water in underneath, but for some reason they tend to leave the front gates open to let water in faster. 

And here they go!

How is this for a camper?  They have been in the campground for at least as long as I have been.  I don't think it has a bathroom or water hookup, but it seems to have electric, and I am certain it has a generator!  Check out the AC unit on top.  There is a door on the back, and personally, I think the back area would make a nice patio area.