I was looking for a park to get my steps in and consequently discovered the delightful East Ridge…read morePark in East Ridge Estates in Hobe Sound. The East Ridge Estates neighborhood is located between Dixie and Federal Highway. The small community was built between 1977 and 1988 and consists of single-family, 2 and 3 bedroom homes. At the end of March of this year, East Ridge Park opened a new playground. The shade covered, updated play area has slides, climbing equipment, and swings. The park also has a basketball court, restrooms, and a covered pavilion with picnic tables. Large trees throughout the park provide welcome shade from the summer sun. A Royal Poinciana in full bloom next to the playground was especially lovely and as an added bonus, made for an excellent climbing tree.

Great area. Quiet. No traffic. Lots of shade. Drove around for a while trying to find a playground…read more Asked a local and directed us to this one. It's tucked away. Can't see from main road. It's off Osprey though.

Cool park! We drive by often and it's always something we've wanted to stop and check out. I had no…read moreidea this park is so huge! You could drive for 30 minutes and still not see everything! We stopped by on a weekday and the park was pretty and relaxing. Not too many people on the couple of trails we did. The observation tower is closed but they still have a nice boardwalk up to that area that makes for a great walk! It's pretty highly elevated for Florida - kind of impressive in person! Entry is $6 per car, and the lady provided a map and recommended her favorite trail. We checked that trail out as well (the white trail), but the height of the observation tower trail was really the star! We decided to drive around after doing both trails, and we saw their campgrounds. So surprising at how busy this place was! It seemed there was hardly an empty spot! Must be a happening place to camp! We'd definitely return for more adventures, as this is a cool park!

This place is great for those into the outdoors or nature in general. Kayaking, camping, fishing,…read moreand plenty of wildlife you might run into. There's overlooks and and an endless supply of trails to choose. I will definitely be back with some chairs and hoping for some quiet time to myself. The environment is so unique here you feel like you're in a different country at times.

This tiny park is located at the east end of Cove Road where it meets the Intracoastal Waterway …read more It is the kind of small waterfront park you see in Stuart that looks like it was going to be a house lot but the city somehow managed to save it for a park. The park only has three picnic tables and a dirt parking lot. Although the view is stunning, the real reason to come here is to launch your kayak. This park is part of the Martin County Paddling Trail. If you have your own kayak you can launch from the sand beach and head east across the 3/4 of a mile intracoastal to reach the St. Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park which is the northern tip of a barrier island, ending where the St. Lucie River meets the ocean. It is one of the few undeveloped barrier islands on the east coast of Florida. This state park can only be reached by boat but it has restrooms, a free tram, picnic shelters, a 3,300 foot boardwalk, and an unspoiled hidden beach, From Cove Road Park you can also paddle south to Pecks Lake or north to the St. Lucie Inlet. You can have a lot of paddling fun launching from the park but note that the small parking lot fills up fast.

At the dead end of Cove Road you'll find Cove Road Park. A lovely, very small park complete with…read moresea breezes, picnic tables, shaded and sunny spots, with a small sandy beach area. Launch your kayak here, and use their posted paddle trail map to navigate! A lovely spot to eat your lunch, too! No public restrooms, however.

Mary Brogan Park is named in honor of a Martin County educator and advocate for breast cancer…read moreawareness. Mary Brogan was the wife of Frank Brogan who served as Florida's lieutenant governor under Jeb Bush. Mary grew up in Cincinnati along with her childhood sweetheart who would later become her husband. In Florida Mary Brogan worked in Martin County as a third-grade teacher at Port Salerno Elementary School in Stuart and later as an assistant principal at two schools. After her husband was elected education commissioner, she went to work at Florida State University as an education consultant. Mary was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 and after undergoing treatment it went into remission. Sadly it came back a year later and she passed away at the age of 44 in 1999. Mary Brogan Park is a beautiful park with a lot of nature elements. Park amenities include a restroom with water fountain, basketball court, playground, and picnic pavilion with tables. The most popular feature of the park is the skatepark with ramps. This is one of three parks in Martin County with skateparks. My favorite part of the park was the exercise path in the rear of the park. There is a paved path and a natural earth trail. This is a great park for exercise, walking a dog, play, skate boarding, or a game of basketball.

This is the nature center at the Nathaniel P. Reed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. Originally…read morenamed Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, this preserve was established September 30, 1969. Nathaniel P. Reed's parents helped to create the preserve by donating swaths of land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service near the Indian River Lagoon in the 1960s and early 1970s. On April 17, 2019, the name of the preserve was changed to honor their son environmentalist Nathaniel Pryor Reed who was the environmental advisor to Florida governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. in the 1960's. He also served as environmental advisor to Assistant Secretary of the Interior to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1971 to 1977. Reed was instrumental in drafting the Endangered Species Act and saving Big Cypress Swamp. The Clean Water Act is also part of his legacy. He was known for fighting for the environment before it was cool to do so. Reed was a long time Jupiter Island resident. He passed away in July of 2018 after falling and hitting his head after hooking a 16 pound salmon while fishing in Quebec. The refuge is located on the coast of Martin County and it is divided by the Indian River Lagoon into two separate tracts of land totaling over 1000 acres. The Jupiter land tract is 735 acres and is important to the environment because it contains the largest complete section (3.5 miles of Atlantic Ocean Beach) of undeveloped beach in Southeastern Florida. As a result of the uninterrupted beach it is one of the most productive sea turtle nesting areas in the Southeastern United States. The Refuge protects 40 species of sea turtles listed as either threatened, endangered, or of special concern. Florida is the only state where endangered Leatherback Sea Turtles nest. The 300 acre sand pine scrub area is rare because the high, dry land was ideal for building on, so more than 90 percent of this ecosystem in Florida has been lost to development. You only find sand pine scrub in Florida and Alabama. The preserve also contains 10 miles of mangrove communities along the Indian River Lagoon. This National Wildlife Refuge has a large biodiversity of plants and animals. The last time I visited this refuge in 2021, the visitors center was closed for renovations so I was interested in visiting this trip. The nature center is run by a private, non-profit organization, that is dedicated to promoting an environmental awareness in people of all ages. The nature center building is made up of a exhibit hall, classroom/ lab, and a gift shop. Exhibits in the nature center include the sand pine scrub, Indian River Lagoon, The Atlantic Ocean, Jupiter Island, protecting biodiversity, adaptions for survival, and information about the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Preserve. There are tanks with fish and reptiles to view. The nature center hosts turtle walks, summer camps, evening forums, scrub tours and more. It is free to visit the nature center but some of the events may have an additional charge. Check out their website for a complete list of upcoming events. On Earth Day April 22nd they will be offering free family activities, games and crafts. Before you leave be sure and check out the cute gift shop with an assortment of nature themed items. Next to the parking lot is a stairway that takes you down to a beautiful beach where you can swim. You can also hike the scrub surrounding the nature center. There is so much to enjoy at the refuge and I always enjoy my visits.

Nice trail heading to the beach and the nature center has lots of animals including fish, a snake,…read moreowl, salamander and hawk.

While driving through Hobe Sound I discovered this unusually named park. Hobe Sound's connection to…read morethe Greek myths goes back to the 1920's during Florida's land boom years. In 1924 the Olympia Improvement Corp. intended to develop Hobe Sound into a movie production town similar to Hollywood, CA. Investors were recruited and Greek named streets like Olympus, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Adonis, Mercury, and Mars were constructed. The intention was that Hobe Sound would have its name changed to Olympia and there would be a section called Picture City for development of the movie industry. Before Olympia could really get off the ground, the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 ushered in a period of economic downturn followed by the Great Depression. Funding dried up and by 1933, the Olympia holdings were sold to the Hobe Sound Co.'s stockholders. If you look closely, you can still see faint glimpses from the past in the part of Hobe Sound known as Old Hobe Sound, where Bridge Road meets the FEC tracks and Old Dixie Highway. The roads fan out from the location of the never built Olympia railroad station and 1920's cement streetlights run along Dixie Highway. Another reminder is Zeus Park which sits next to the old Olympia town hall which was the sales office of the Olympia developers. Today Zeus Park is a passive, circular shaped park in the middle of a neighborhood of charming cottages from the 1920's. The park has a large open area for play, picnic tables, a playground, and a butterfly garden in the northwest corner of the park. The butterfly garden was created in 1998 by the Hobe Sound Women's Club. The butterfly garden was rebuilt after the hurricanes of 2004 and it is maintained by the Hobe Sound Women's Club and Martin County Master Gardeners. The mature oak trees around the perimeter enhances the beauty of the park and provides welcome shade from the Florida sun. I enjoyed discovering the fascinating history of this charming park.

Beach in the wintertime? Yes please!…read more I love Hobe Sound Beach since it's not too crowded for a later morning walk. The views were stunning on the day we went with bright blue skies and seas with not too much by way of waves. I think the guard stand had a yellow flag for conditions that day but the water looked nice for a cool, refreshing swim. The beach itself is pretty clean with no litter that I could see, and the shelter has plenty of picnic tables to sit at and take in the views. They have a foot sprayer that's located a bit far from where it is needed at the entry. I did not use the bathrooms while there but it is nice to know there is a permanent standing structure there.

One of my favorites places to take out-of-town visitors. Sometimes we take A1A and sometimes we…read moretake I95. As we get closer to the beach, the road has this very scenic canopy type of trees all the way to Hobe Sound Beach; just magical. The parking lot was smallish but we never had any parking issues. A walk on the beach is always delightful. Nice experience.

Gorgeous nature preserve. A wonderful walk to the water that loops around. I've taken many friends…read morehere over the years and have always enjoyed it. I would suggest this to anyone who loves to be outside. There is a floating dock by the water and it's pretty fun to pretend it's gonna detach every time a fast boat passes by and sends it tumbling in the waves. 10/10 nature preserve

The Kiplinger Nature Preserve Park is a 157 acre natural area in Stuart. The land used to belong to…read morethe Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. and the Kiplinger Foundation Inc. until Martin County purchased it to preserve the land. Ecological communities making up the preserve include freshwater and mangrove swamps, wet prairie and estuarine river. The preserve contains stands of sand pine and scrub oak as well as pine and scrubby flatwoods. Animals that have been spotted here include the Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, the Golden Silk Spider, raccoons, and alligators. On my visit I spotted a Sandhill Crane but it was too far away to take a picture. I was excited because I have seen the large birds all over the campus at UCF when I visit my daughter but we don't have them in Broward County. They are funny because when I see them they are usually blocking traffic and they do not care. The cranes will nest here in the prairie in the late spring. The trail that runs through Kiplinger is an easy one mile loop. It runs behind condos, past wetlands, across some raised boardwalks and back along the river. In addition to the trail there is a free parking lot, three foot bridges, a floating fishing dock, and a place to launch a kayak or a canoe. It is a great place to enjoy nature, get some exercise and fresh air.