Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, Jupiter Island - A Secret Florida Beach

Destination: Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, Jupiter Island, Florida - A Secret Beach

Travels With Diane - Blog Number Two


                 Snuggled unrevealed at the top of a dead end road, the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge Beach is a five mile unspoiled, wild, and incredible coastal seashore. This Reed Wilderness Seashore Sanctuary was established in 1969 to protect the Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtles. Bisected by the Indian River Lagoon, this coastal beach covers 171 acres of the total 1,035 acre Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge.

                Hidden behind towering sand dunes, this spirited beach can not be seen as you travel along the dirt North Beach Road. Suddenly as the road ends, there is a small refuge sign overpowered by the thick lush vegetation everywhere. You then notice a small dirt lane heading through these walls of vegetation into the refuge, where a park ranger booth, a parking lot, washrooms and a wooden observation platform above the dunes are the only man made structures.

                 "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead."

                                                                                                                 Einstein
                   This quote from Einstein embodies the feelings I experienced as I gazed upon this Seashore Sanctuary. As I stood on the wooden observation platform above the dunes and gazed at this wonder, this marvel, I was moved by the mystery of this secret place. Muriel, an artist, I met in Hobe Sound, choses this beach to sketch for her paintings. She told me she can not express how this place touches her except through her unique paintings.

                    Each time I visited this mystical beach, the feeling of mystery took on different nuances. I tried to capture some of this feeling in my photographs. My most exciting visit was on a day the high winds were whipping up 10 foot waves and riptides and fiercely shifting and blowing the beach sands creating a desert like landscape with shades of a forever moonscape.

               

A morning after a huge storm I found these washed up items on the beach.

My next blog will take you to some interesting sites in Martin County near Hobe Sound.