We’ve spent the past week at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, FL, just north of Jupiter, an area we haven’t previously visited. Established in 1950 on land which was home to a top secret WWII radar testing facility named Camp Murphy, the park covers 11,500 acres and has 2 campgrounds. We stayed in the newer campground which has been open about a year and has large sites with full hookups, unlike most Florida state parks which generally have only water and electric hookups.
The park has a number of special features including a nature center, multiple trails for walking, bicycling, and horseback riding, trips on the Loxahatchee River, and the Hobe Mountain Observation Tower. The tower is located on Hobe Mountain, an 86 foot high ancient sand dune which is one of the highest points in south Florida. From the tower you can see the intracoastal waterway, the Atlantic Ocean, the distant city of Palm Beach and much of the park.
We also enjoyed activities outside the park including bicycling at Riverbend Park in Jupiter, a new Palm Beach County Park with paved and hard surface walking and bicycling trails with lots of natural areas. On another day we biked on Jupiter Island where Tiger Woods has a large mansion. As always we enjoyed biking past the homes of the rich and famous and seeing the lush semi-tropical landscaping.
We also biked the A1A route along the beach in Jupiter and Juno Beach. It was really nice to be enjoying sunny Florida weather when north Georgia has 4 – 5 inches of snow/ice and the lows are still in the teens at home.
Our best meal in the area was lunch at the Food Shack which was rated the #1 restaurant in Jupiter on Trip Advisor. George had sea bass with a crunchy sushi rice coating served over mixed greens with apples and kiwi. Irene ordered angel hair pasta with shrimp, scallops, asparagus, eggplant, and cheese in a roasted tomato and pepper sauce. We split dessert which was a dark chocolate mousse with nuts topped with whipped cream with toasted coconut on top. The plate had swirls of raspberry coulee. It was delicious.
We had some interesting “neighbors” across from us in the campground. They enjoyed spending time around the grill, and we enjoyed observing them – two sandhill cranes. They were pretty amazing when they flew.
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