Parrotfish dart over rippled rock in the shallows at John D. Rocky Reefsįamilies flock to Bathtub Reef, just south of the House of Refuge, where rocks tame the waves and there’s a living reef to see – bristle worms build clusters of tubes atop the limestone. Adjoining Coral Cove offers a wonderland of jumbled, eroded rocks calving off into the sea not far from the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. At low tide, the rocks are fun to explore. On stormy days, you may see fountain-like spurts through erosion holes in the limestone at Blowing Rocks Preserve, protected by The Nature Conservancy. Waves spray high into the air over a ridge of rock, the Anastasia Limestone, which forms bluffs up to 15 feet tall from Stuart south to Jupiter. Bluffs and Sea CavesĪt Gilbert’s Bar on Hutchinson Island is the House of Refuge Museum, built in 1876 as salvation for shipwreck survivors and now a maritime museum with a commanding view. Pensacola Beach beckons with dunes, family fun and a brilliant white shoreline that stretches to historic Fort Pickens in Gulf Islands National Seashore. At Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, ever-changing dunes protect a chain of coastal freshwater lakes. Joe, where you can camp along a wild shore. Joseph Peninsula State Park near Port St. Wind sculpts soft, light sand into mounds and dunes, spectacular at places such as St. Seaside SparkleĮroded to a fine powder, Appalachian quartz and flecks of mica make the beaches between Apalachicola and Pensacola a bright, dazzling white. Augustine Beach and Flagler Beach, where Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area offers a quiet coastal escape. The color of coquina lends a coppery tint to sands between St. Augustine, a treasure uncovered by Spanish settlers and put to use in building houses, the city gates and the Castillo de San Marcos, where the shell-laden rock absorbed cannonballs. Coquina is an important part of historic St. Tidal pools cradle limpets, periwinkles and crabs. Just south of Marineland, this rocky beach isn’t for swimming, it’s for exploring. Waves tug at strings of seaweed along a shoreline of jumbled rocks at Coquina Beach, part of Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. Here are samples of the many types of beaches you can explore. With more than 1,260 miles of coastline, you'll find unique beaches in Florida that range from sand as soft as baby powder to shell-strewn strands, hard packed sands and solid rock. But here, sand mixes with dark peat from the eroding bluffs and the estuary surrounding Amelia Island, where kayakers glide through the needle grass. Across the inlet, riders on horseback canter down the beach.Ī secluded cove off A1A in Big Talbot Island State Park, Blackrock Beach gets its name from boulders shaped like wave-rounded basalt on this island. Read about the types of beach you can expect to explore.Įmerging onto the beach, you find a coastal paradise: emerald sea broken by bright white sandbars and framed by round rocks as dark as lava. White, black, even orange? Yes, the sands of these unique beaches in Florida are all of these colors.
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