After getting an all clear report on the boys' ears Friday a week ago, we decided to take the rest of the day for an Adventure Friday. Normally, our Adventure Fridays are only a couple of hours. We hike and visit an area, maybe geocache if there are any around. But this week we decided to take the half a day we still had and spend it all at Canaveral National Seashore. It was a brilliant decision, our only regret was not having a whole day to spend in the park.
Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge are adjacent national grounds just North of Titusville, FL and just South of New Smyrna Beach, FL. However, I wouldn't recommend trying to see both in a day. Canaveral is reached from the Northside, while Merritt Island is reached from the Southside; and while the two parks butt up against one another, there are no through roads. Before ending our day, we swung by the Manatee Viewing Area, which is just inside the Merritt Island Refuge, but to do so we had to go back into New Smyrna Beach and then backtrack North then West to afterwards turn South and drive the length of the park following US Highway 1. You would do better to either take two days to see a park on each day, or to just pick one and plan to come back another time to see the other park. Additionally, this is about the limit of a one day trip for us, because coming and going from most of the state involves a trek through Orlando, which is a nightmare everyday of the week. So while this could be a one day trip for most of the state, you may want to plan to spend the night nearby just so you don't have to brave Orlando traffic twice in one day.
We began our day by pick up Access Passes for our three oldest children. The Access Pass is a little advertised free pass that the National Park Service allows for any disability including "permanent physical, mental, or sensory impairment." It is a lifetime pass that has no expiration date. Since our three oldest have ADHD as we've discussed before, they get the perk of free entrance for them, and anyone in the car with them into any national park, forest, monument, or memorial. The passes can be obtained through the mail or online ahead of time for $10 or free on site. There are also a number of other passes that the National Park Service offers. There are annual and lifetime military pass for anyone who has served in the military in the past and meets certain requirements both of which are also free. There is also the 4th grade pass that allows any 4th graders to get into the national parks free for a year. Finally there is also the annual pass open to anyone, with different prices being charged for different ages. If you are just visiting for the day without a pass the park cost $20 a car load.
We made our first stop in the park at the Visitor and Information Center. There we looked at a few displays and explored an electronic console that took us through the life of a sea turtle. After picking up our Junior Ranger booklets we watched the welcome video about the national seashore. If you aren't familiar with the Junior Ranger Program, I highly recommend it. Our friends in Pennsylvania introduced us to it several years ago, and we try to complete them everywhere we go now. You can download the booklets ahead of time, or get them at the visitor center at the parks, they do a great job teaching kids about the wildlife, history, and conservation efforts made in an area. Partially completing a book will get you a pin with the Junior Ranger Badge for the local area. Completing a book will get you a pin and that park's badge. We didn't complete our booklet in time to turn it in the day we went, so we finished filling it out the following week at home and mailed it back to get our badge.
Our next stop was Castle Windy Trail which begins at Parking area #3 and takes you across the narrow peninsula to Mosquito Lagoon. It is a fantastic trail just under half a mile out and back. If you pick up a brochure for the trail at the Visitor Center it details 14 different stops along the route that details plant life that you can see. The kids learned to identify Wild Coffee plants and Redbay plants among others while we were exploring. Even Kate 3 days later remembered them and could pick them out on our hike with co-op. They were even able to pick out saw palms versus cabbage palms, and tell several different ferns from each other. The ending view was a bit anti-climatic, but the hike itself was gorgeous.
Finally, after making the kids wait to do what they really wanted, we made it to the beach. One of the things that the Junior Ranger program requires at Canaveral National Seashore, is the participant to pick up at least 5 pieces of trash, and there was plenty to clean up as the tide was just turning and going back out to sea. It was sad to see just how much trash washes up on Florida shores daily. However, after cleaning up our little section of the beach, the kids had a ball in the water. The combination of being just past full moon and just past high tide, all on a super windy day, left us with massive waves. I was even enough that I curtailed how deep they could go out, as rip currents can move along the shore with no piers and things to break up the shoreline at the park.
Britt, Ruth, and Rebecca rode the waves in over and over on their boogie boards. Kate ventured a little ways out once with hers, but after being flipped head over heels, she decided the Atlantic Ocean was way too rough for her. Will and Jon spent the bulk of their time holding Daddy's hands while shreiking with delight every time the tide tried to pull them back out with all the sand under their feet. I mostly enjoyed watching everyone and snapping a few photos. Though Kate and I did enjoy taking some super zoomed in photos of the sand and seeing the crystal structure of the salt and the minerals in the sand, since we had just been reading about those things being a part of the composition of rocks earlier in the week.
After a couple of hours at the beach we loaded up to go by and visit Seminole Rest, a home that still rests within the park's boundaries. I was looking forward to touring it, since they only open the inside up to the public on Fridays in October. However, we arrived too late to catch the final tour of the day. (Again see driving out of the park and down US Highway 1, traffic is a nightmare on the East Coast.) We were able to walk the grounds while I talked to the kids about the historical significance of the area. The Timucuan Indians lived in the area long before white settlers came to Florida's shores. The area that Canaveral National Seashore now occupies was an area where they had a clam processing facility. Now, unlike our seafood processing plants today, the Timucuan Indians would periodically come and harvest the many clams that grew in the area, and preserve them on the spot. They would then pile the shells and remains of other sea creatures in what we call middens (which is just archelogy's fancy word for a historic trash dump). What is so interesting about Seminole Rest, is while everyone else years and years later were selling these crushed remains of shells to local road crews to make shell roads, they refused and build homes in the area. This action preserved an 18 foot tall midden, which archeologist now are spending time exploring in order to learn more about these Indians who all died back in the colonial period.
Since we were so close, we finished out the day with a stop at the manatee viewing area. Almost all of us were able to see a flipper or fan tail or muzzle break through the water, despite it being sunset when we arrived. Pretty soon the sand gnats were eating us up so we fled back to the car, but it was a beautiful end to a long and busy day. We hope to make a trip back sometime and take the Eldora trail and see that home, which is only open on Thursdays right now. We'd also like to do the night time kayaking which I believe is done on the Merritt Island side of the park. It is definitely a place we'd like to visit again, but not too soon, because Orlando traffic you know.
If you'd like to make a trip the address to the visitor center is 15185 Broad Street, Brooksville, FL. The Visitor Center is open from 9 to 5 and the park is open from sunrise to sunset. Regular entrance to the Park is $20 for a car load of up to 8 people.
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